The Natural Law
by Pegasai
Summary: Magic. It is no longer a product of legends or fairy tales, but rather a science now known to all. But even in a world where supernatural feats are commonplace, he was an anomaly that shouldn't have existed. Now finally back where it all started...will he shatter the world that created him or will he be crushed by it first? Warning: rating may go up.
1. Chapter 1

**Foreword:** The scientific explanations of the magic in _Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei_ are simply amazing. Normally, I really dislike reading Sci-Fi because the science is usually horribly wrong, but the magic system (at least the science portion of it) in _Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei_ is nearly ironclad.

This crossover will have _Naruto _characters strewn throughout the _Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei _Universe. Obviously, there will be differences in personality and abilities for the _Naruto _characters. The most obvious will be the differences in Naruto.

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own _Naruto_ or _Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei_.

* * *

><p>Naruto stifled a yawn as he entered the schoolyard. It was still early in the morning and Naruto was feeling a bit groggy. Even after all these years, he just simply was not a morning person.<p>

He had simply gotten up early because it was the first day of school and he didn't want to be late, but now he had almost an hour to kill before the start of the school ceremony.

"Ah…" he said while stretching, feeling the resistance from his still-new clothing. "I wonder what high school in Japan is like going to be like."

He had already finished the first year of high school in the USNA, but apparently the freshman year of the 4-year high school curriculum in the USNA was equivalent to the last year of middle school in Japan. He took out his mobile terminal to check the map of the school. ID cards were to be given out after the school entrance ceremony ended, so he couldn't access any of the school facilities just yet.

Naruto mentally groaned. That meant he was just going to have to meander around aimlessly for the better part of an hour.

Walking around, he saw and heard some—presumably older—students who walked through the courtyard and hallway with practiced ease and confidence.

"Isn't that kid a Weed?" an upperclassman girl whispered loudly to her friends as she walked through the school doors.

Her friends weren't any quieter. "He's early. He sure is enthusiastic for a reserve."

"In the end, he's just a spare."

Naruto blinked as he turned to look at whom they were about. Naruto didn't know too much about this school, but given that his scores on the entrance examination had been near the top—rank fourteen overall—he most certainly wasn't a reserve.

So they were referring to someone else. Naruto noticed another boy standing outside looking blankly at the school building.

_Ah, another first-year. _Naruto appraised him from a distance. The black-haired boy was a bit taller than average at around 175 cm with a medium build. And sure enough, the lack of the eight-petal flower emblem on his chest and shoulders indicated that the boy was a Course 2 student. Naruto felt a slight rise of anger at the upperclassmen girls' blatant dismissal of his fellow first-year and their snobbish sense of elitism. No matter where he went, it seemed that people placed too much value on artificial standings over other people.

His anger ebbed away as curiosity took over. _But what the hell is a weed? Is that some kind of Japanese idiom?_

Shaking his head to forget that irrelevant point, Naruto walked towards the other student.

"Hey," Naruto called out cheerfully.

The other boy merely raised an eyebrow as their gazes met. "Hey."

Naruto sweatdropped at the stoic response.

"I've seen corpses that were livelier," Naruto muttered under his breath, before plastering a bright smile on his face. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, but you can call me Naruto. Nice to meet you."

"Shiba Tatsuya. You can call me Tatsuya. Pleased to meet your acquaintance."

This time, the other boy's voice had a bit more energy in it, almost as he heard Naruto's low mutter to himself. As for the greeting, it was a normal, friendly greeting, with mutual agreement to be on first-name basis, but Naruto couldn't shake the feeling that something was…off…about the other boy.

Naruto was so lost in his thoughts that he was almost startled when the other boy spoke. "Did your parents really name you Naruto?"

Naruto almost scowled and not for the reason most people would think. Still, he couldn't blame his displeasure on Tatsuya so Naruto gave him a wry smile.

"I'm actually an orphan," Naruto said with a shrug. "I don't know what name they gave me."

That wasn't the truth, but that was all he wasn't going to reveal his past to a boy he just met a few minutes ago. Naruto was often outwardly open and cheerful, but he kept his cards closer to his chest than most people.

"Ah, I see. My apologies," Tatsuya said with a light tilt of his head.

"No," Naruto said while waving both his hands in front of him, "I never met my parents, so it's not like the thought is painful." Another lie. "And it's definitely not your fault for bringing up the topic. It happens a lot when people realize what my favorite food is."

"Ramen, I presume?"

"Got it in one!" Naruto laughed. "The characters for my name actually mean 'maelstrom,' of course, but it's funny how the other meaning of 'Naruto' fits me much better."

Tatsuya's facial expressions didn't change one bit.

_Strange kid_, Naruto thought. Either Tatsuya had superb control over his facial expressions or he was unable to express any emotions.

In the world of magicians, either was possible. Many magicians, even at this age, were highly trained warriors who were very mature and controlled for their age. Also, although there weren't too many anymore, many magicians were literally created to be weapons from birth and sometimes lacked many human features and functions. Conditions like autism, while still rare, were comparatively common among magicians.

"I see."

Naruto almost glared at the other student. "What about you? I told you something about myself so you should tell me something about yourself." Without waiting, Naruto went on. "Why the hell are you so damn stoic? Your face hasn't so much as twitched since we started talking."

"That's just the way I am and have been. There was no intention to offend."

Naruto blinked. He hadn't really expected an answer—he was actually hoping to rile the other student up—but the answer was completely unsatisfactory. He opened his mouth to voice his displeasure.

Tatsuya interrupted before Naruto could get a single word out of his mouth. "If that's all, then…"

Naruto was so shocked that all he could do was gape at the stoic, apathetic, yet somehow completely rude student as he walked away.

"What the hell just happened?"

Naruto groaned. Not only did he not get his answers as to what a weed was—Naruto knew the upperclassmen girls weren't referring to vegetation—now he had to figure out how to waste more time until the entrance ceremony.

"Maybe I'll have better luck in the actual auditorium."

* * *

><p>Tatsuya was sitting down on a bench with his screen terminal out.<p>

However, reading was the furthest thing from his mind. He was wondering about the blond boy he had just met. He could tell the other student was dying to ask some sort of question and Tatsuya had decided that he should leave the premises as soon as possible.

It wasn't likely that Naruto or any of his soon-to-be-classmates would know anything about his past and connection to the JSDF or Yotsuba Family, but that was no excuse to be careless. Tatsuya trusted his well-honed instincts. There was nothing _hostile_ about Naruto, but something about the blonde was unsettling. The best bet was to withdraw and observe from a distance to see if the fellow first-year would pose a threat.

Still, Tatsuya felt mildly irritated that he couldn't pinpoint just what exactly about the blonde was so worrying.

Was it the measured way Naruto had carried himself?

No. Tatsuya shook his head. It was natural for magicians to be confident and it wasn't unheard of for magicians to have combat training.

Was it the fact that Naruto's Japanese was flawless despite his clear foreign ancestry? Flawless enough to joke about the clever pun on his own name.

After all, magicians weren't allowed to freely cross borders. Naruto _could _be related to one of the many USNA magicians who settled down in Japan in the pre-war era when the world was more concerned about increasing the number of magicians through magician-magician marriages rather than solidifying national power. While his softer features suggested mixed ancestry, lending credence to the theory that Naruto _was _a descendant of a foreign magician who settled down in Japan, Naruto's claim of being an orphan was both suspicious and convenient.

After all, how did an orphan somehow enroll in the most prestigious high school in the country? And as a Course 1 at that? Innately talented or not, an orphan should not have been able to have the sufficient training and education—both usually obtained by going to the very expensive magic cram schools—to pass the entrance exam to get into First High School.

Tatsuya was so lost in his thoughts that he was startled when he heard a voice.

"Are you a new student? It's almost time for the ceremony."

Tatsuya looked up from his screen.

The first thing that came into view was the skirt of a uniform. Following that, wrapping around a left arm was a wide bracelet.

He instantly noticed that the broader-yet-thinner-than-normal-bracelet was the latest model of a generalized Casting Assistance Device (CAD). He dully noted that the sleek CAD was crafted with ease of use and fashion in mind over actual processing power.

While most magicians did prefer the bracelet-type CADs to eliminate the possibility of dropping the CAD, most A-rank magicians used the handheld CADs, both for their processing power and the ability to use the CAD with either hand. And while Tatsuya himself preferred functionality to appearance even at the expense of fashion, but Miyuki did not, so Tatsuya had come to slowly learn the value of fashion. He was sorely tempted to write it off as a "girl" thing even though such notions were severely outdated; the only people in his life who seemed to care about fashion were the girls.

All of these thoughts passed though his mind in a fraction of a second.

He instantly realized that only select groups of students were allowed to carry CADs while on campus. Given the situation, the girl in front of him was most likely a Student Council executive.

"Ah yes. Thank you, I'll be on my way."

The girl in question didn't have any intention of letting him go and merely leaned forward to get a closer look at his mobile terminal.

"I'm impressed. A screen terminal?"

As he moved to stand up, he noted the girl's eyes flickering to his chest and shoulders. But her gaze did not have the slightest hint of belittlement and was filled with a pure, innocent curiosity instead.

"Our school disallows the use of virtual display terminals. It's regrettable that many students ignore those rules and still use the virtual display types."

The girl tilted her head in light confusion. "You're technically not a student of this school just yet. You aren't under any sort of restriction just yet. Despite this, you're still using a screen terminal."

"The virtual type is not suitable for reading," Tatsuya explained succinctly.

It was the truth, but Tatsuya would be lying if he said that he didn't put any thought into his answer. If Tatsuya came off as excessively blunt or careless to a member of the Student Council, it could potentially have negative repercussions for Miyuki, who was the freshman representative and would probably be chosen by the Student Council.

"You read instead of watching animations? I'm impressed. That's rare these days." The girl sighed wistfully. "I also prefer book-based information to animation-based ones, so I'm kind of happy there's someone else like me." The upperclassman girl suddenly froze. "Ah, I'm sorry. I haven't introduced myself. I'm the Student Council president of the First High School, Saegusa Mayumi. Nice to meet you."

Despite the friendly tone and the wink at the end, Tatsuya almost frowned. _A Number! And a Saegusa no less!_

It appears that high school wasn't going to be a joke after all. His mind briefly turned towards the blonde he met earlier. He should probably get used to meeting more unsettling people if there were members of the Ten Master Clans walking around in plain sight.

"I'm…I mean…my name is Shiba Tatsuya. It's a pleasure to meet you, President."

It was slight but Tatsuya caught it. The eyes of the Student Council president went wide with surprise.

"Shiba Tatsuya-kun…I see. You are _that_ Shiba-kun, huh?"

Normally, he would have gone on guard, but it was likely that the president knew of his relation with his sister, Shiba Miyuki, the freshman representative. The "that" was probably referring to the fact that he was the inept older brother of the genius freshman representative.

He politely kept quiet, however.

The upperclassman girl went on. "Among the teachers, you have been quite the topic," she said with a cheerful smile, appearing unconcerned with his silence.

_It was probably due to how rare it was to have a pair of siblings who were that much of a far cry from each other._ Tatsuya thought cynically even though he didn't feel the slightest bit of pain or shame; he was beyond such feelings now.

Still, he was baffled that he couldn't detect any incredulity or negative emotion could be sensed from her. The president's bright smile was devoid of any intent to ridicule him.

"Has it now?" he asked.

"Out of a hundred marks, the average mark of all seven subjects in your entrance exam was ninety-six. Especially outstanding were the topics in magic theory and magic engineering. Even though the average grade among those who passed was barely seventy in those two subjects, you received perfect scores on exams that even had difficult essay-based questions."

"Those are merely paper test results. They are just data inside an information system. In the world of magic, practical results are what truly matter," he responded with a wry smile, pointing to his left chest.

There was no way for the Student Council president to not understand his gesture.

But the older girl just shook her head at his words.

"Perhaps, but that kind of terrific score is something even I wouldn't be able reproduce, you know? I may not look like it, but I'm much better in theory-based subjects than I am in the practical-based fields, Shiba-kun."

For the first time in a long time, Tatsuya felt the urge to roll his eyes. It was likely that the president _was_ more comfortable in magic theory, but difference between her theory scores and practical scores was most likely negligible. The girl was a Saegusa, after all.

Repeating his tactics from his conversation with Naruto, Tatsuya stood up abruptly and addressed the girl.

"It's about time. Please excuse me."

With that, Tatsuya took his leave from the older girl, who seemed to have more to say, and turned his back towards her without waiting for her reply.

* * *

><p>Naruto stepped into the nearly empty auditorium with a sigh. He had been planning on getting to know <em>someone <em>before school started, but that plan was looking like a failure so far. Most of the people in the auditorium seemed to be paired up and engaged in private conversations already.

Naruto wasn't rude enough to just randomly jump in.

Maybe this whole idea of making friends was a bad idea. He certainly didn't have problems being the loner back in the USNA, although that was mostly because he was absent a third of the time and never had the time to get to know anyone.

Ah, there was a person who was alone.

Naruto quickly trotted towards the person who was sitting near the back. All Naruto could see was the student's back, so all Naruto knew was that the student was male and was a Course 2 student.

"Hey…" Naruto began. His eye began to twitch when he was greeted with a light snore.

Naruto was about to reach out and shake the other boy—manners be damned—when he was hit with a flash of recognition.

_Shit! What the hell is someone from Konoha doing here?_

Konoha. An organization with roots in Japan and now one of the strongest ancient magic organizations in the world. The most powerful families within Konoha were said to be close to the level of a family within the Ten Master Clans of Japan. But unlike the Ten Master Clans, Konoha operated in complete secrecy and was only known to those at the highest level of government around the world.

Being privy to insider information, Naruto knew that Konoha had a few thousand magicians with combat capabilities alone, the might of a small country. Of course, that was nowhere near the force that Japan, one of the strongest magic countries, had. While actual numbers were classified, it didn't take a genius to figure out what Japan's military strength was in terms of magic. Japan currently had a third of the population that it did in the early part of the century at forty million and only one in one thousand people were just _regular _magicians. It was well known that thirty to forty percent of all magicians were affiliated with the military in some manner, so there were probably anywhere between ~12,000 to ~16,000 combat magicians in the military.

On the other hand, the Konoha employed _shinobi_, not just regular combat magicians. Shinobi trained in all areas of combat, and not just magic. In a single combat between an average Konoha shinobi and an average modern combat magician, the Konoha shinobi would win every time.

Nonetheless, modern magicians were catching up in combat prowess. It was said that with the death of the ninety-fourth Hokage twelve years ago, Konoha deserted its ancestral home of Japan to consolidate its power in a less magically developed nation. From what Naruto knew, Konoha was now based in the southeastern part of the Great Asian Alliance, near present-day Shanghai.

Naruto's hand twitched as his hand itched towards the weapon he had hidden in his sleeve.

While Naruto's father, the previous Hokage of Konoha, had promoted integration of Konoha shinobi in the modern world, the rest of Konoha did not. Naruto suspected it was one of the reasons why Namikaze Minato had been assassinated.

There was no way Konoha would have sent one of its members to a school teaching modern magic without good reason.

And Naruto had a good idea what that reason might be.

The agent could be an agent sent to assassinate him. While Konoha's power was greatly diminished in Japan, it wasn't completely impossible for them to have found out that Naruto had snuck back into Japan. Naruto, with his heritage as the son of a Hokage and the product of a classified series of experiments to make him a super soldier, was a loose end that needed to be tied up.

But considering the lax attitude of the Konoha operative, it was probably only within the realm of suspicion.

Mind racing, Naruto weighted the pros and cons of acting right now and killing the likely assassin in his sleep and tried to reign in his rising killing intent as much as possible. Naruto could probably succeed in killing the boy in front of him, but that would all but scream confirm to Konoha that he was hiding not just in Japan, but also in Tokyo as a student of First High School. That would only lead to future and more frequent assassination attempts. Perhaps it was just better to keep an eye on this operative for now.

Naruto lost his chance to make a move, however, because the boy woke up.

"Eh?" the boy blinked. "Who are you?" he groaned.

Naruto plastered a bright and well-practiced smile on his face. "The name's Uzumaki Naruto. You can call me Naruto. If you don't mind, can I sit here?"

"Nara Shikamaru. You can call me whatever you want," the yawning boy replied before nodding. Naruto wasn't surprised when he didn't recognize the name. Not only were operatives were given codenames and false identities, but Naruto also hadn't seen this boy in front of him for over seven years. It was completely by chance that Naruto had recognized him. "But are you sure a Bloom like you should be sitting next to a Weed like me?"

"What do those terms even mean?"

Shikamaru's eyes widened in surprised. "You're an idiot, aren't you?"

Naruto felt like hitting the other boy and it wasn't because the other boy was a likely assassin. "I'd prefer uninformed. I'm not from a magic family or anything and I just moved to Tokyo two weeks ago after finding out that I passed the exam."

Shikamaru sighed. "Well, a Bloom is a Course 1 student and a Weed is a Course 2 student. The names come from the emblem shape. I'm not sure how much you heard about this school, but there's an unspoken rule forbidding Blooms from associating with Weeds."

"How ridiculous," Naruto snorted in a genuine show of irritation. "Social hierarchy at this school is determined by the entrance exams? You've got to be kidding me."

"Power is everything," Shikamaru quoted. "There is nowhere where that is more true than the magic community."

Naruto almost narrowed his eyes at that comment. He knew that better than anyone else. For the better part of seven years, he had been on the run, training the best he could and fighting to survive. He had miraculously survived and escaped the Great Asian Alliance, to Japan, and then to finally to the USNA.

In any case, it didn't seem like Shikamaru recognized who he was. In hindsight, it was to be expected, after all. Seven years was a long time. And Naruto only recognized Shikamaru because Naruto was constantly on guard for assassins from Konoha and had learned to _never _forget a face.

It was strange, however, that Shikamaru's face wasn't in the "Black Book," a long list of known Confederate operatives that Naruto received from the Pervy Sage.

Naruto paused. _That would be Ero-sennin in Japanese. _Naruto reminded himself. But hell if he was going to _think _in Japanese when he was far more used to using English.

In any case, the Pervy Sage regularly sent encrypted storage disks through his familiars so that Naruto could update his personal screen terminal with the latest information and the perverted old man swore that anyone who could be sent after Naruto would be listed in there.

Naruto often spent his free time memorizing the faces, codenames, and skillsets of as many operatives as he could.

Shikamaru's face was definitely _not_ in there.

Naruto shook his head. No, he was being overly reliant on the Pervy Sage's information. Not even the famed spymaster could get completely accurate and comprehensive data when the opponent was Konoha. Shikamaru could very well be a newly licensed agent or a deep cover spy. Naruto couldn't afford to let his guard down.

"You seem pretty resigned," Naruto commented in an off-hand voice. "Shouldn't you be bitter?"

"Nah," Shikamaru chuckled. "It's too much of a drag to be bitter. And prestige itself is a drag. Once you have it, people expect more from you and life becomes that much more difficult."

"Ah, so you tanked the entrance exams," Naruto concluded. Shikamaru would no doubt be surprised that Naruto "astutely" read between the lines, but Naruto already knew that something as pitifully easy as the entrance exams would be no problem for a Konoha magician. Naruto's response was a calculated move to see how the Konoha shinobi would react.

"I don't know if tanking is the right word," Shikamaru shrugged nonchalantly. "It's too much of an effort to increase the phenomenon-writing strength of my magic spells, so I just kept it to a minimum to pass. And I just answered the just enough to pass in the theory portion and napped for the rest of the exam."

"It might have been less of a hassle to just finish the exam as fast as you can and go home than to thoroughly calculate what score you would need to barely pass."

That last comment was actually genuine. Naruto himself had tried to hold back so as to not invite too much attention, but he ended up miserably failing at that.

In hindsight, it was to be expected that the standards of a magic high school were even lower than he had imagined. After all, Naruto was someone who had slaughtered and fended off constant attacks from dozens of Konoha shinobi since he was eight years old.

"Meh."

Naruto pressed on further. "Or if you take that argument even further, it might have been a less of a drag to be a normal citizen altogether instead of a magician."

"I hardly have any other marketable skill," Shikamaru drawled. "And magicians in general have a higher average income the average citizen. I did a thorough cost-benefit analysis of all my options. I even considered taking the high school exit exam to skip high school altogether, but it turns out that most places prefer a high school diploma." He sighed. "So it's going to be three years of listening to boring lectures on terminals. The silver lining in all of this is that Course 2 students have complete freedom of how to approach their work. Almost all our class time is essentially independent study."

Naruto couldn't tell if Shikamaru was really serious or not. The other boy's tone was completely genuine, but there was no way anyone this lazy would have sent out on a mission.

He was half tempted to drop the word "Konoha" just to see how the black-haired boy would react.

Would he maintain that façade of laziness even then?

* * *

><p>As a result of the conversation with the Student Council president, by the time Tatsuya entered the auditorium, more than half the seats were already filled up.<p>

Occasionally, there were schools that still followed the traditional style of arranging the seats by class. But First High School only revealed the assigned classes after the entrance ceremony. As such, there were no seat designations. Tatsuya was free to sit anywhere he chose.

He noticed, however, that there was clearly an order to the distribution of seats for the freshmen.

The first half were taken up entirely by the Course 1 students with the eight-petal flower emblem on their uniforms—the Blooms…the freshmen who would receive the full benefits of the curriculum of this school. The back half was entirely taken up by the Course 2 students—the Weeds.

_The people who were the most conscious of the discrimination accepted the discrimination, huh? _He thought to himself.

Tatsuya had no intention of going against the flow and slowly walked towards where the other Course 2 students were.

Sweeping his gaze towards the back, he realized he had to amend his earlier observation.

The back half wasn't entirely populated with Course 2 students.

There was a single Course 1 student sitting next to and chatting excitedly with several other Course 2 students. It was Naruto, that strange blond boy who had chatted with him earlier that morning. While the girls next to Naruto were giggling and apparently enjoying the talk with Naruto, the black-haired Course 2 student sitting immediately next to Naruto appeared as if he wanted to be anywhere but next to the chatty blonde.

It seemed…prudent…to avoid the blonde and Tatsuya began to walk towards the other end of the auditorium.

"Hey! Tatsuya! I saved a seat for you!"

As fate would have it, his escape plan had been foiled. Considering the fact that over half the auditorium was still empty, there had been no need for Naruto to "save" a seat. It was evident that Naruto wanted to talk.

Resigning himself, Tatsuya politely nodded to acknowledge the blonde. It wouldn't do to blatantly offend a fellow student on the first day of school. He had probably been pushing it with his clipped self-dismissal earlier.

"Thanks," Tatsuya said succinctly as he sat down next to Naruto.

Naruto introduced him to the others sitting in the area. "This is Shiba Tatsuya." Naruto gestured towards a redhead, a girl with glasses, and the black-haired boy who looked absolutely miserable. "Tatsuya, this is Chiba Erika, Shibata Mizuki, and this is Lazy Ass."

_Chiba._ Tatsuya thought. _Another one from the Numbers._

Tatsuya wasn't surprised at this point, having met a Saegusa already, but he was beginning to realize that the magic community was even more insular than he thought.

Shibata wasn't a special family name, however.

The girl identified as Chiba Erika chortled. "Nice to meet you, Shiba-kun. 'Lazy Ass' is actually Nara Shikamaru, but I think he's given up trying to reclaim his real name."

Nara wasn't a special family name either. But unlike Shibata Mizuki, the boy in question didn't look nervous at all next to a member of the famous Chiba family. If anything, he merely looked annoyed.

Naruto snorted. "I'm telling you. You wouldn't believe half the stuff this guy said. I mean…his ambition, if you can call it that, is to get married to a plain woman, do nothing while saddling his wife with all the chores, and then die before his wife after living a very boring life. And he keeps falling asleep every thirty seconds! If that's not being a lazy ass, I don't know what is."

"Uzumaki-san, that's not a nice thing to say. I'm sure that Nara-san has his own dreams."

"Naruto, you're such a troublesome guy," Nara groaned. "Shiba, I'd say it's nice to meet you, but I have a ringing headache right now from this guy's obnoxious voice, so you'll have to excuse me as I fall asleep."

Tatsuya raised an eyebrow a fraction of a centimeter when he saw Nara actually falling asleep.

He merely looked towards the girls for an explanation; they seemed much more normal than Naruto.

"Don't look at me," Chiba shrugged. "I only met them a few minutes ago."

"Nara-san must be really tired," Shibata supplied in a timid tone.

Tatsuya nodded even though he disagreed with her assessment. Even though it could be dangerous to judge someone by appearance, it was clear that she was a shy person and openly correcting her could scare her and make her withdraw, something he had no intention of doing.

Even if last statement of hers seemed more forced than anything.

Upon a closer look, he instantly noticed what had been bothering him about the girl. In this era, it was quite rare for girls to wear glasses. Vision correction procedures were so widespread to the point that very few people needed corrective lens. And the few people who did often wore permanent contact lens. However, this girl was wearing glasses. At first, Tatsuya assumed that the glasses may have been a fashion accessory, but one look at the lens told him that the girl wore them because of a special condition.

_Oversensitivity to pushion emissions…_

All magicians could sense pushions, which were the particle manifestation of emotions or more casually known as spirit particles, but only a select few could see them. And oversensitivity to pushion emissions was a condition of the body where one can see pushions emission without conscious effort, and cannot shut it out with conscious effort. In other words…a disorder where one's senses were too sharp. Because of the nature of pushions, being highly sensitive to pushions made the person susceptible to breakdown of his or her mental stability in the presence of a high amount of pushions.

Tatsuya would have to be careful around the girl and reign in his intents even more. He couldn't have her finding out any of his secrets.

"Shiba-kun?"

"Yes, Chiba-san?"

The girl made a gagging face. "Call me Erika. As expected, being called by my family name is unpleasant. In exchange, I'll call you Tatsuya."

"Very well. Erika, then."

"Anyway, you just had a scary look on your face. Is there something wrong?"

Tatsuya shook his head. "No. It's nothing like that."

"Eh?" Tatsuya leaned back as Naruto leaned over to get a good look at his face. "He had that same sullen look on his face since he sat down. Erika, you sure you saw something?"

"You seem to be talented at insulting other people," Tatsuya said mildly, feeling not insulted at all. He wasn't capable of feelings like that.

Naruto gave him a cheeky smirk. "I find it that it's the fastest way to get chummy with people…at least with guys."

"Uzumaki-kun, you can also get into fights that way." Shibata murmured lightly.

Naruto shrugged. "That's fine, too. Guys can bond over fighting."

"Spoken like a true barbarian," Erika commented sardonically. "You're lucky that Nara-kun didn't slug you after you scared him awake, Naruto-kun."

"Well, I knew he'd be too lazy to do so," Naruto explained. "I got to talk to him for about fifteen minutes before you girls showed up so I had a very good idea of what I could get away with."

Tatsuya did not mention that fifteen minutes was definitely not enough to get a grasp on a person's habits and personality. Then again, with just a few minutes of careful observation, Tatsuya could tell that Naruto, at least superficially, was the type of person who hated adhering to the norm. Naruto wasn't sitting with the rest of the Course 1 students and he definitely wasn't shy about pushing limits in social interactions.

Normally, that was characteristic of someone who generally wouldn't be of interest.

Were his instincts earlier wrong?

Tatsuya made a mental note to ponder about that later as the Student Council president went up to the podium to start the orientation.

* * *

><p>Naruto was rather impressed with Shiba Miyuki's orientation address. After hearing what Shikamaru had said about the culture at First High School, Naruto had cynically considered thought that Shiba Miyuki might be one of those elitists who loved looking down at others. But her speech openly promoted ideas of integration and acknowledging that there was more to a person—and life—than magic.<p>

At the same time, he was rather unimpressed with the audience's reaction. He doubted that anyone in the audience had truly listened to what she had said. The guys were figuratively drooling at Miyuki's beauty and pose while the girls were wallowing in a sense of inferiority after comparing their own physical beauty with Miyuki's.

_Idiots…all of them…_ Naruto mentally snorted. Why was he in high school again?

Naruto was too grizzled and far too much on edge, the Pervy Sage had said. Which was then followed up with some perverted bullshit that being around "fresh young flowers" in their school uniforms and taking part in "cherry pops" was good for the soul. He did have to admit that Miyuki was an unparalleled beauty, but Naruto had enough self-restraint—a solid resolution not to be like the Pervy Sage—to not lose his bearing just by being around her.

No girl was _that _pretty.

Naruto mentally snorted again when he again thought about the pervert's reasoning. Being in Japan made him _more _on edge since he was technically back in Konoha's former backyard. And sitting next to and making friends with a potential assassin who was most likely looking for him and trying to kill him was driving him insane.

Naruto decided that he was going to shove a Rasengan up the Pervy Sage's ass the next time they met.

"Tatsuya-kun, what class are you in?" Erika asked excitedly.

After the orientation, they had all stood in line to pick up their identification cards. Erika hadn't bothered to ask Naruto since it was likely that he, as a Course 1 student, would be in a different class.

"Class 1E."

On hearing Tatsuya's reply, Erika bounced up and down. Naruto felt it was a bit unnatural, but the happiness in her tone was anything but.

"Yay! We are in the same class."

"I'm in Class 1E as well!" Mizuki said with a smile. "What a coincidence! Three of us out of five?"

"Make that four," a voice interjected. "Must be something about Class 1E students and sitting in the back row."

Naruto looked down at his ID card. "I'm in Class 1A."

"A for asshole," Shikamaru drawled, saying the one-word insult in suspiciously perfect English, although his voice didn't have any malicious intent. "That's what you get for constantly waking me up."

Naruto groaned humorously although he didn't miss Shikamaru's shift in language. Naruto briefly wondered if Shikamaru had caught on to who he really was. If so, then why give it away?

"That's so not fair. If I had B, you would have called me a bitch. If I had gotten C, cu…well…you get the idea." Naruto wisely stopped before uttering some filthy words. He was fairly certain that the girls didn't know the particular word he had in mind, but he didn't want a reputation for being a potty-mouth even among the guys. After all, he was in Japan, where the customs and social norms were far more conservative than in the USNA. _When in Rome…do as the Romans do…and when in Japan…be a complete stiff… _"It didn't matter whether I got A, B, C, or D. I had no way to winning in that situation."

"Exactly, so you should have just let me sleep."

Naruto rolled his eyes, but slumped his head again to make a show of being disappointed. He _was _a bit disappointed that Shikamaru would be out of his sight, but as for friends…Naruto could just make more in his class. And it wasn't like he wouldn't see the ones he had just gotten friendly with during the ceremony.

"Ugh. So I'm back to square one. Time to put on my game face and deal with the awkward first-time greetings again."

"Aww cheer up," Erika said while patting him on the back. "It's not like you could have taken courses with us reserves in the first place, you know. And I'm sure you'll make plenty of friends. I'm already happy that you even took the time to talk with us. None of the other Course 1 students did that. You saw how divided the seating in the auditorium was."

Naruto shrugged. "You forgot about the freshman representative. She seemed pretty levelheaded as well. Ah…what was her name again?"

"Shiba Miyuki," Mizuki said brightly before she turned to Tatsuya. "Shiba-kun, is Shiba Miyuki-san be related to you by any chance?"

"She's my little sister," Tatsuya responded, his first contribution to the actual conversation since he told everyone his homeroom assignment.

"Twins?" Shikamaru asked sharply.

Tatsuya shook his head.

"I was born in April 2079. Miyuki was born in March 2080. So while we were born in different calendar years, we are in the same academic year."

The answer was robotic and practiced. Naruto got the feeling that Tatsuya had been asked the same question many times. He felt a wave of pity for the other boy. It must have been hard growing up, constantly being compared to the more talented sister.

"Heh…" Erika replied. "I guess that makes things rather complicated. It might have been easier if you were born a month earlier or her a month later."

Tatsuya smiled, his first sincere sign of emotion all morning. "On the contrary, I find that being in the same year as my sister is convenient."

Naruto chuckled. "Oh? Folks, we have a real-life siscon here."

Everyone present snickered with the exception of Tatsuya.

Erika didn't even bother trying to hide that she was laughing. "Man, Tatsuya-kun, you walked right into that one."

Naruto noticed that Tatsuya looked lost during the exchange. More and more, Naruto was sure that Tatsuya simply didn't have enough experience with being around other people.

"But wow, must have been difficult with a walking bombshell like Shiba Miyuki-san as your sister," Erika noted. "Not to mention that she's talented, too." She narrowed her eyes. "Well, I'm sure you're quite talented, too, Tatsuya-kun."

"Not just talented," Mizuki added mildly. "I think Shiba-kun is rather good-looking as well. He has similar features as Shiba Miyuki-san."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. A confession on the first day of school? Without any substantial relationship beforehand? Ridiculous. Naruto felt like he was living in some kind of visual novel or dating simulation game where Tatsuya was the protagonist and a flag was just raised for the Mizuki route.

"Yep! If you think about it, Tatsuya is quite the hunk!"

Naruto twitched. _And that would be a flag for the Erika route._

"Erika-san, you like using archaic phrases and idioms, don't you?" Mizuki noted curiously. "'Bombshell.' 'Hunk.' Neither word has been in use since the beginning of the century."

"Do we really look alike?" Tatsuya suddenly asked.

Mizuki turned red as Tatsuya turned to look at her intently.

"No," Naruto said quickly. "And we're all very glad that you don't. Tatsuya, it would be a very _bad _thing if you looked like Miyuki while being male." Naruto shuddered. Imagining Miyuki as a male, but keeping the same features, was enough to kill any sort of lingering physical attraction Naruto had for Miyuki.

"I'm pretty sure that's not what he meant, Naruto," Shikamaru said with a roll of his eyes.

"Well…It…it's not that you look alike…it's…it's your aura. Your dignified features look alike."

"Hm…aura…" Shikamaru said thoughtfully. "I've been meaning to ask, Shibata-san, could it be that your lens have no degree?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. He had noticed that, too. Shibata Mizuki most likely suffered from oversensitivity to pushion emissions. It was an ability that was similar to his own sensing ability. He couldn't "see" pushions, but he could sense them with far more sensitivity than normal magicians.

Mizuki's eyes widened in panic, but there was no time for further comments.

"Onii-sama!"

His jaw would have dropped if he hadn't been worried about looking so stupid in front of his peers.

_Onii-sama?! Who the hell says that in this time and age? Either that or I have less of a grasp of the Japanese language than I thought._

That could very well be possible. While Naruto was born in Japan, he had only remained until he was three before moving to the GAA with the rest of Konoha and returned to stay for only a single year when he was nine years old. He had been taught Japanese, but professional fluency still couldn't compare to native fluency.

"Onii-sama, sorry for the wait."

They all turned to see Shiba Miyuki who was positively sparkling with joy. For what, Naruto had no idea.

"Ah, it's no problem, Miyuki. I hardly had to wait at all; I just finished getting my ID card a few minutes ago."

A voice interrupted them.

"Hello, Shiba-kun. We meet again."

Naruto blinked when the Student Council president waved to Tatsuya as she walked towards their little group. Naruto turned his eyes towards Tatsuya. "Wow, Tatsuya, for someone so seemingly unsocial, you sure move fast," he hissed, with a slight elbow to the side.

The temperature in the air dropped a bit after that statement.

"Onii-sama…" there was a hint of warning in her tone.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in the girl's mood. Was the girl bipolar? He was tempted to activate his special ability to gauge what was going on in the girl's head. But one glance at Shikamaru made him shelve that thought. If Shikamaru were an ESP user, he would instantly detect Naruto's sensory ability the moment it activated.

"Ah," Tatsuya said quickly, "this is Nara Shikamaru, Uzumaki Naruto, Chiba Erika, and Shibata Mizuki. Aside from Naruto, they are all in my class. And as for Saegusa-sempai, I met her just before the orientation." The final part was added with a sense of urgency.

_Ah…so that's what it was… _Naruto rolled his eyes. A siscon brother and an even more hardcore brocon sister.

The Shiba siblings were quite the pair. Part of Naruto wanted to cut his losses and run away while he still had the chance. The other part wanted to tease Tatsuya in front of Miyuki and see how the situation would escalate. Naruto could feel the psions leaking out from the younger Shiba and he didn't even need to activate his own special ability to know that the girl's emotions were wildly swinging between insecurity and anger.

Miyuki seemed to get a grasp of her emotions, however, and the tension cleared up.

"Good morning, Nara-san, Uzumaki-san, Shibata-san, Chiba-san, I am Shiba Miyuki of Class 1A. I'm also a freshman just like Onii-sama, so I look forward to being in your care."

"Eh, Class 1A?" Erika said excitedly. "You're in Naruto-kun's class!" She suddenly got sheepish and gave a quick apology. "Sorry, Where are my manners? It's nice to meet you, too. Just call me Erika. Can I call you Miyuki?"

That led to a quick round of introductions where it was agreed that they would all call the siblings by their first names if only because it was annoying to distinguish who was being addressed using the last name alone.

Naruto felt that fussing over using given names and family names was a hassle, but he knew that it was the social norm in Japan. _Things were so much easier in the USNA._

"Miyuki. Are you done with your business with the Student Council? If you are not, I can go kill some time myself."

"It's fine."

They all turned to the Student Council president. "I'm here just to say hello for today. Miyuki-san, may I call you that as well?"

"Ah, yes."

The older girl smiled brightly. "Well then, Miyuki-san, we'll catch up on another day."

One of the accompanying male students at her side voiced his complaint. "But President, what about the schedule on our side?!"

"It's not like we made an appointment beforehand. If she already has another engagement, she should give that priority, right?" Her voice was sweet, but Naruto could sense the underlying steel in her tone. It wasn't all that surprising, considering that the girl was the first daughter of the Saegusa Family. "Well then Miyuki-san, I shall take my leave. Shiba-kun as well, I'd love to catch up with you one of these days. And you too, Uzumaki-kun."

With that, the Student Council president waved and made her exit out.

Naruto didn't miss the glare that the older upperclassman boy sent towards Tatsuya. It was a completely undisguised look of jealousy and self-righteous anger.

Naruto mentally snorted. At first, Naruto had thought that it might have just been jealousy, but given that the glare had been reserved only for Tatsuya and both he and Tatsuya were called out by the president reeked of elitism. It seemed that even the Student Council wasn't immune to discriminatory behavior. Naruto shook his head. Wait…that wasn't right. It was probably _because _it was the Student Council that it was more prone to such attitude.

Still, Naruto wondered about Saegusa Mayum's comments. It made sense for her to be interested in him since he scored first overall on the practical exam, but it was odd for her to be even more fixated on Tatsuya. Naruto wondered just what could make the Student Council president and a Saegusa interested in a Course 2 student like Tatsuya.

* * *

><p>"Now, shall we go back?"<p>

Tatsuya didn't really understand how he had somehow managed to provoke the displeasure of not just the upperclassmen, but some of the Student Council executive members as well just a few minutes after official enrollment. He hadn't been expecting a smooth-sailing high school life, but he had to bemoan his luck, or lack thereof, when it came to deflecting unwanted attention. Miyuki seemed to draw the good sort of attention, whereas he seemed to draw the bad form.

Tatsuya didn't voice any complaints though. He would take what life sent at him and do his best to protect Miyuki.

That was the only thing that mattered.

"I'm sorry, Onii-sama. Because of me, people are getting a bad impression of you."

"It's nothing you need to apologize for," Tatsuya said gently, as he brought his hand up and placed it on Miyuki's head from the side in a small pat. As he continued to stroke her hair in a combing fashion, he noticed that her downcast face became colored with happy expression so he continued patting his sister's head to sustain her good mood.

"Um…I know you're just patting your sister on the head, Tatsuya…" Naruto said in a tone that Tatsuya recognized as uncomfortable, "but given the look on your sister's face, I'm pretty sure what you're doing has to be illegal."

"Eh?" Tatsuya said as he stopped and looked down at his sister's flushed face. "How so?"

"You can't tell?" he asked incredulously. "She looks like she's a minute away from org—" The blonde groaned. "Never mind."

"I'm guessing we'll have to get used to this," Shikamaru said dryly. "Tatsuya's in Class 1E with the rest of us and Naruto and Miyuki-san are in Class 1A. We'll be seeing a lot of one another."

Erika suddenly jumped into the conversation. "Well, enough about that. Anyway, since we are all here, why don't we go have a cup of tea?"

Teatime invitation. From what Tatsuya knew, it was a way for high school students to get to know one another better.

"Sounds great! There seems to be a nice cake shop around."

"You two didn't check up on where the school entrance ceremony would be held, and yet you know where a local cake shop is?" Naruto asked with a shake of his head.

Tatsuya figured that this must have been the topic of their conversation before he joined them in the auditorium.

"Of course! It's something important, isn't it?" Erika nodded as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.

"More important than education, huh?"

"Definitely!" Erika returned cheerfully.

"Don't try to argue with women, Naruto. It'll just end up being a drag."

"Hey! This is the end of the twenty-first century! That kind of sexist talk has no place here!"

"Right, this coming from a girl who uses completely antiquated phrases," Shikamaru replied sardonically. It was evident to everyone that he was wholly unapologetic. "Well, let's hurry up and go before we die of old age."

All of them began walking before noticing that he and Miyuki weren't following.

"Coming?"

"Onii-sama, what do you think?"

Tatsuya paused for a moment. He had intended to spend the rest of the day with Miyuki only to commemorate his younger sister's enrollment and status as freshman representative, but given how disastrous his social interactions went just a few minutes before, he might as well try to end the school day on a good note.

"Well, sounds good. After all, we just got acquainted with one another. As Shikamaru said, we're going to be seeing a lot of one another."

* * *

><p>"Welcome to Hisajima Devices!"<p>

A girl with light blond hair greeted Naruto as he stepped into the CAD shop. Like Naruto, she too was mixed Asian and Caucasian descent.

"Hey, Shiho. I'm finally here!" Naruto sang out.

"Naruto-kun! It's been so long! Oh my, you've grown so much! The feeds on the video chat don't do you justice!"

Naruto laughed as he rubbed the back of his head. "Thanks, and you've become quite the beauty."

"Oho! Little Naruto-kun has grown to be quite the charmer."

"And perhaps you hear these compliments enough that you can accept them without even a light blush," Naruto shot back. Considering Shiho's relatively mild personality, however, it was more likely that she just hadn't taken Naruto's quip seriously at all because they had known each other for so long.

Naruto looked carefully at what he had just interrupted.

"Working on a new CAD I presume," Naruto said, as he gestured toward her glasses. Unlike Mizuki's glasses, Shiho's glasses had the function of aiding in the detection of psion activity and were used for her work.

"Business has picked up in the last year, so I have to help my father more often. It's a shame though. I usually don't have the time to participate in my club at school. It's technically fine since I'm just an auxiliary member, but I do wish I could help out more at school. Oh my! That's right! Today was your first day of school!"

Naruto nodded. "The first years only had orientation today and we got out at noon. I spent some time with some classmates after that and then came here in a railcar. I figured it was a good time as any to get my CAD checked up."

In general, public transportation was now accomplished via mini railcars in stations that leave on a systematic schedule at high speeds. Large vehicles that accommodated dozens of transportation, such as trains and subways, were rarely used. Instead, small linear two or four seat cars linked to a central control system were mainstream.

Unfortunately, while infinitely more convenient, they were only slightly faster than transportation systems eighty years ago.

"It's over two-hour taking the rail-car from Tokyo to Tokai, Naruto-kun."

"Your fault for moving here," Naruto said cheekily.

Shiho took off her thick glasses and glared at him, although the glare was a forced. "Well sorry, I didn't feel confident enough in my magic skills to get into the elite First High School!"

Naruto raised his hands up in mock surrender. "Yes, yes. I'm an elitist and you have every right to insult me. And let's all calmly ignore the fact that we both know that you went to Fourth High School because of your skills in magic engineering." Naruto chuckled. "And besides, I've only been here in the country for two weeks; shouldn't you be glad that I visited you as soon as I could? And besides, starting from tomorrow, I probably won't be able to visit for a while. So instead of tearing into me, even if it's a joke, shouldn't you tell me about your first day back?"

The girl smiled. "Well, the novelty of being at a magic high school has worn off long ago so coming back is nothing special, especially considering that breaks between school years are rather short. It was nice seeing all my friends again and the second year classes seem far more interesting, but there's not much beyond that."

"So you don't feel any wiser?" Naruto teased lightly.

"Nope. Let's get straight to business. Bring your CADs here."

Naruto complied. He took out his two mobile phone shaped general purpose CADs (each holding ninety-nine Activation Sequences), his gun-shaped specialized CAD (that held up to nine Activation Sequences), and his three different knife-integrated CADs (each holding one Activation Sequence).

Shiho raised an eyebrow. "Do you really need all of this?"

"Heh…I do, but I'm sorry I can't give you any more details." Naruto gave her a sheepish grin.

"Yes, yes…I got it…just like six years ago…" More so than quality of work, the strict merchant-customer confidentiality was the reason why Naruto had come to Hisajima Devices.

Shiho took him down to the lower floor where CAD related merchandise was sold; the top floor was for general electronics that non-magicians bought. Magicians were still relatively rare, so it wasn't good business to sell only magic devices and equipment.

"This place is much larger than your last place."

"And part of the reason why business has been doing so well; people automatically seem to think that bigger places are more legitimate." Shiho sat him down next to a large machine with a monitor. "Need to do any adjustment or switch in spells?"

Naruto furrowed his brows. "I definitely don't want to switch or reorganize any spells, but I'm not so sure about whether I should do any adjustments. The CADs work perfectly fine for me but I'm not a professional."

"Alright, I'll take a look at the operating system first to see if there are any problems and then we can manually check your synchronization with each CAD."

"Thanks."

After about fifteen minutes, Shiho sighed in exasperation. "You haven't changed at all, Naruto-kun."

"Eh?"

Shiho let out an unladylike snort. "Where should I start?" She paused. "Well, I'll start with the good. You've been doing an excellent job maintaining your CADs. And I'm impressed by how many professional grade Activation Sequences you have on your CADs. But seriously…_seventeen_ different lethal A-rank spells and _thirty-nine _more lethal B-rank spells? Really?" Shiho shook her head. "And that's not even counting how many other spells can be used for combat. Your CADs might as well be encyclopedias for spells used to kill other people."

"And that's the reason why I can't really go anywhere else."

"Yeah, I'll bet. But wow…you really haven't changed. I still remember the day when a blood-soaked nine-year-old kid came bumbling in with a high-end generalized CAD only containing spells for combat and killing. My father almost had a heart attack from seeing some of those Activation Sequences.

"So…" Naruto said uncomfortably, "aside from the questionable nature of the Activation Sequences on my CAD, is there anything wrong?"

"Nothing besides the norm. There was some junk cluttering up the operating system, but I remove that; I'll show you how to do it in a bit. But…you really need to do something about appearing like some sort of killer."

He _was _a killer and he was sure that Shiho knew that as well, but he wasn't going to voice it out loud.

"What do you suggest?"

"Ever thought about assigning one of your CAD for 'mostly normal' use and the other one for 'mostly combat' use? Even _you _would have a hard time completely filling up a single CAD with only purely lethal spells. The 'mostly normal' one could have a few lethal spells and hold most of the other high-ranking complex spells that you have, but that's nothing out of the ordinary for elite magicians."

"I suppose I could," Naruto sighed. "But that's too much of a hassle reorganizing the Activation Sequences and memorizing which sequence is located on which CAD. All of my spells are carefully organized along the Four Great Systems of Magic, by range, and by complexity. After years of keeping the same order, asking me to change that is…"

"Do you even need that many Activation Sequences stored up? Most A-rank magicians do fine with the ninety-nine slots in one generalized CAD. In fact, most combatants get on well with just the nine possible with the specialized CADs. And going by the fact that you have a specialized CAD as well, you must have spells that you favor. There's no reason for you to have nearly two hundred individual spells."

"Actually, I rarely use the specialized one. It's just there in case I run into someone who has a faster casting speed than I do."

Shiho's jaw dropped. "You're kidding…I personally know for a fact that your activation speed when you were nine years old was 500 milliseconds. From the checkup I did just now, in the last two months, ninety-five percent of your cast times range from 187 milliseconds to 235 milliseconds, with a mean time of about 209 milliseconds. Given the nature of whatever it is that you do, those were your activation speeds during _battle_. In a calm setting, you should be able to reach speeds of 150 milliseconds."

Naruto shook his head. "Improved activation speed in controlled settings is only a phenomenon that occurs for people who aren't used to combat. My focus is more or less the same in all situations."

"So your upper limit right now is somewhere around 187 milliseconds. Do you know what a ridiculously fast time that is? The average reaction speed for humans is 253 milliseconds."

"Some people achieve reaction times of around 110 milliseconds," Naruto argued back. "There are bound to be people faster than I am."

Shiho's eyebrow twitched. "Naruto-kun, you're talking about outliers for human _reaction _time, not activation speed of magic. And you're missing the point entirely. There's supposed to be a lag time between how fast a person reacts and the construction of Magic Sequences in the brain's magic processor. Even if your mind is able to reacts at a certain speed, it can't create Magic Sequences instantaneously. You have an average activation speed of 209 milliseconds. That means that your reaction time is even faster. I highly doubt there's a single person in the world faster than you at invoking spells using a CAD."

"It's always best to be prepared. It's what kept me alive," Naruto insisted stubbornly. "Besides, there are situations where I might end up activating my magic later than my opponent. In that case, I'll have to rely on the specialized CAD to make up the difference."

"Okay…" Shiho muttered dubiously. "Whatever you say…"

Naruto sighed. He wasn't going to convince a non-combatant about how any fight can instantly go FUBAR. "But anyway, going back to the topic of slots…I limited the number of spells as much as possible. I selected those one hundred ninety-eight spells carefully so that I won't be caught flatfooted in any situation."

"Ugh…then how a third general purpose CAD to use as a smokescreen?" Shiho said in an irritated tone. "You can come here for your more questionable CADs for any major problems while doing your routine maintenance on them, but you really should use a normal CAD that you can get regular weekly check-ups on in Tokyo. You might argue that you can just come here after Saturday's morning classes or on Sunday when we don't have school at all, but there are several magic engineering courses where you might be forced to reveal the contents of your CAD."

"But that means I still have to memorize…" Naruto protested before stopping when Shiho gave him a withering glare, "alright, alright…"

"Since you won't be battling with this one, you won't need such a high-end device, but I doubt you'll agree to that," Shiho said. "However, you should be fine with a conventional one, instead of these modified mobile phone types that you holster on your thighs."

Naruto frowned at that. "The regular phone-types have to be held at all times unless they're modified and holstered."

"If you don't like holding a CAD, then get a bracelet-type or cuff-type. It might actually help you fit in better since students prefer those."

"I can only access those with one hand and whenever I do have to cast a spell, both of my hands are occupied since I have to maneuver them in the proper position to press the buttons."

"So?"

"In combat, I don't know which hand I'll—"

"Naruto-kun! You do understand that the point of a third CAD that holds the most commonly used _non-lethal _spells is so that you can maintain the guise of being a normal magician, right? This is so that you won't have to use your other two combat CADs, specialized CAD, and weapon-integrated CADs for daily mundane tasks. Besides, if you combine basic non-combat spells properly, you can even use them in battle. Not every battle has to include heavy-hitting spells like Njord that have no other purpose except to kill. If you want flexibility, learn how to be creative with fewer spells!"

"You're preaching to the choir," Naruto grumbled. "You only took a look at the number of complex spells I have. It's true that I have a lot of high-ranking spells, but I have quite a few basic ones, too."

"Speaking of which," Shiho replied thoughtfully as she looked back to the screen where the different Activation Sequences were listed. "That's true. I didn't think much of it at the time, but you don't seem to have very many mid-level spells."

"That's because I can use multiple basic spells in conjunction or use them sequentially to imitate the effects of most mid-level spells. I suppose I _could _do that for complex spells, but I don't feel comfortable simultaneously activating like twenty spells—no matter how basic—when one complex spell would do the trick."

Shiho winced. "Not to mention calculating all the variables for each individual spell that you cast. I see…but still, I really don't see the point in having a highly specialized spell like Aegir Wave that can only be used with a lot of water nearby."

"I might be attacked on a ship," Naruto shrugged.

"Ugh," Shiho moaned, while cradling her head. "Forget I asked."

Naruto went on and provided a more acceptable explanation. "It takes time to adjust a CAD with new spells and it was much easier for me to add a new CAD instead than find a tight-lipped expert to help with the adjusting whenever I needed to switch in a new spell."

"Well, that makes things easy then," Shiho finally decided. "Get a third CAD. Put in all your basic spells, add in three or four of your most frequently lethal spells, and then split the rest of the space between your favorite non-combat complex spells and the most popular mid-level spells that other magicians use. Consider it your 'all-around' CAD."

"Yes, ma'am," he said in a resigned tone, noting that his wallet was going to feel much lighter by the time he returned home. The Pervy Sage still hadn't given him his allowance for the month, so things were going to be tight for some time.

"Good," Shiho said with a satisfied smiled that slowly turned sly. "And besides, in the case of an emergency, you don't even _need _modern CADs, right?"

Naruto jerked in alarm. "How do you know that?" Naruto said in a deadly tone while raising his killing intent. Naruto subconsciously noted that it was lucky that they were in the basement where no one would see him turn Shiho into a smear on the wall if that's what was necessary.

The information she just revealed was true. First, Naruto was highly skilled in Non-Systematic Magic, which didn't require CADs. Second, Naruto had an innate magic that only he could use and this magic could be used without a CAD. Third, under special circumstances, Naruto could use launch spells using telekinesis and extrasensory perception (ESP). Needless to say, very few people knew the first piece of information and Naruto could count the number of people who knew about the second and the third pieces of information on one hand and have fingers left over.

Despite looking a bit unsettled from the heavy killing intent, Shiho smiled. "I finally got permission, so I'll tell you. For someone so on guard, you really are naïve at times. What are the chances that a nine-year-old kid would find a place that _wouldn't _question such unique Activation Sequences on a state-of-the-art CAD?"

Naruto groaned as he dropped the killing intent and relaxed. "Ero-sennin…" (AN: note, he's talking in Japanese, hence "Ero-sennin." In Naruto's internal monologue, it'll remain as "Pervy Sage.")

The girl laughed. "Jiraiya-sama said you might react that way when you finally found out that I knew that you could use the ultimate Non-Systematic Magic Rasengan. Naruto-kun, I know you resent him, but he really has your best interests at heart."

"I don't resent him. I'm grateful…really…but he's irritating in the most annoying ways," Naruto grumbled. "He micromanages my entire life while being an absentee godfather at the same time. And his training methods are ridiculous! Do you want to know how I mastered Inferno? He took me out of school, freakin' dropped me off in Banff in the middle of winter for a week, and told me to practice Inferno on the ice and snow to make my own drinking water." He gave her a hurt look. "Now you're telling me you worked for him all along? And you didn't mention this to me at all in the last six years? We kept in touch over the net! And you pretended that you had no idea what I was doing!"

"It was an order from Jiraiya-sama. In the single year you were in Japan, he wanted to keep it from you so you wouldn't end up relying too much on us emotionally. Think about it…we only provided shelter for you for a few months and you're _this _attached to us. If we told you that we knew about your background, you probably would never have left us."

"Maybe…"

Naruto had to admit that they had a point. Despite his paranoia, he did have a tendency to be a bit attached. Naruto couldn't imagine his life with the Pervy Sage and he was upset just having to leave the USNA to come back to Japan.

"And the five years after that when you were abroad, we were to keep quiet because Jiraiya-sama didn't want sensitive information passed through the net. And I really _didn't _know what you were doing. All I know is that Jiraiya-sama has been training you and that you're his godson. It's not like we keep in touch with him everyday anyway. Messages are really sporadic."

"I'll never get used to his methods. He doesn't even trust coded messages via voice chats. It's always a handwritten note in code on a paper, delivered by one of his familiars, or the unique Sense-Tuning Magic that he developed for long-range communications."

"Well, this goes for everyone, but we shouldn't be communicating through any traceable means at all. The USNA's spying capabilities are enormous. Echelon III intercepts virtually every transmitted piece of electronic data in the world. The USNA government claims they never look at the actual content and merely look at the metadata, but it's still a lot of information that goes into the USNA's hand. But I was being honest with my surprise at all these crazy Activation Sequences. Just _what _does Jiraiya-sama have you doing?"

"Nothing," Naruto said honestly, a bit relieved that he could be truthful to his friend. "It's just that I have assassins after me."

"From Konoha?"

Naruto wasn't surprised at that question. It had been obvious from the moment that she mentioned the Pervy Sage's name that she had some past affiliation with Konoha. "Yes. And given that you calmly dropped that name and the fact that you're connected to Ero-sennin, I assume you're from Konoha as well."

Shiho's normally cheerful eyes hardened at that. "My parents and I were considered non-essentials in the Exodus twelve years ago after the death of the Minato-sama and were publicly given the option to stay in Japan. However, the current Hokage sent one of his personal assassins to kill us to get rid of 'loose ends,' so to speak. We were fortunate that Jiraiya-sama was able to arrive in time to kill the assassin."

"Wait, wait…_Sarutobi _sent assassins after you?" Naruto asked.

Shiho looked taken aback by that. "I'm surprised that Jiraiya-sama didn't inform you. Hiruzen-sama died five years ago. The current Hokage, Shimura Danzo, staged a coup d'état and purged all of the Hiruzen-sama's supporters. Konoha's fighting strength was estimated to taken a twelve percent hit."

"Holy…" Naruto breathed out, floored by the revelation. "I'm surprised that fighting on that kind of scale didn't make major news. Good information control or not, thousands of shinobi fighting would definitely be noticeable."

"I told that the fighting only happened in the main village near Shanghai and ended quickly with the assassination of the Hiruzen-sama."

"To think that he went down so easily," Naruto muttered. There was no lost love between Naruto and the man who had essentially exiled him from the village, but it was strange to think such an important figure in his life was gone just like that. And Naruto knew that Shimura Danzo was significantly worse than Sarutobi; the assassins sent after him were almost entirely from Shimura's Root organization. "Anyway, you haven't had any problems since?"

"I guess we were far too low on the priority list," Shiho shrugged. "Still, Jiraiya-sama scouted my parents because of my father's skill in fuinjutsu and my mother's talent in hacking and modern cryptography. It wasn't too difficult to apply the basics of fuinjutsu to modern magic and skilled computer engineers are always in demand so my parents were able to start up a business here in Japan."

"I see…"

"Well? What about you, Naruto-kun? Why do you have assassins after you?"

That's right. Shiho didn't know too much about what happened in Konoha in the last twelve years aside from what the Pervy Sage told her.

Naruto decided to be honest, but vague. "I'm not sure I can give you details, but I was part of a classified magic project that succeeded but was leaked to the rest of the villagers. Sarutobi tried to have me killed to cover the experiment up and after I escaped, Shimura Danzo kept sending assassins after me, presumably either to kill me to prevent me from falling into enemy hands or to capture me to use me for his own ends. But to think that he even became the Hokage…"

"Naruto-kun…" Shiho gasped as she hugged him lightly, "I'm sorry."

Naruto returned the hug. "Don't be. It's not your fault and I've done pretty well for myself." He stepped back and smiled. "And I'm glad that I could finally tell you all of this."

"Yeah…" Shiho murmured. "But your situation was much worst than I had imagined. No wonder Jiraiya-sama had you stay to the USNA for the last five years. Staying in the most powerful country outside of Konoha's influence was probably the safest for you."

He nodded. "It didn't die down completely, but there were far fewer attempts on my life. Anyway, enough about that. I still haven't told you about my first day at school!"

Shiho smiled. "Oh? Go on, then. So what do you think of Japan? How's it like to return?"

"Well," Naruto folded his arms. "I hate Japan already. Publicly, it's way too conservative, but half the people here are freaks. There are these two siblings in my class. They're Irish twins and—"

"Irish twins?"

"Oh," Naruto said thoughtfully. "I forgot. Japan doesn't use that phrase. In the USNA, they called siblings born within twelve months of each other Irish twins. Don't ask me why it's Irish. Anyway, the siblings are a guy and a girl and I've never seen such a crazy siscon and brocon pair before." Naruto made a gagging face. "The younger girl is always swooning and ecstatically moaning 'onii-sama, onii-sama,' and the older guy is always cooing at her. They have eye-sex…_all the time_."

Naruto shook his head in disgust.

"Eh…I'm sure you're exaggerating things a bit, Naruto-kun. I might have believed you if this was the beginning of the century when morals were loose and sexual perversion was rather rampant in the country, but…"

Naruto shook his head. "I'm fairly certain I'm understating it actually. I lived abroad in a more liberal country for the last five years and I was still about to hurl." _Not to mention, I could literally feel Miyuki's love for Tatsuya coming off of her in waves._ "Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up pregnant with her brother's child before the end of the year."

Shiho made a face at that before laughing awkwardly. "Well…sounds like an interesting first day of school. Welcome back to Japan, I guess?"

* * *

><p>Despite getting out early that day, by the time Tatsuya got home, it was close to evening.<p>

Of course, there was no one to welcome them to their large house.

He returned to his room and took off his uniform first. He really didn't want to think that such a "makeshift mantle" could affect him that much, but after taking off the blazer that was intentionally fashioned to look "different," he felt a little lighter. He was definitely getting out of shape if such small amounts of weight affected him.

Ignoring such thoughts for the moment, he went back out to the living room to greet Miyuki who had just finished changing herself.

Once again, he noticed his sister's choice of clothing. For some reason, this little sister's fashion sense tended towards a more revealing nature at home. It hadn't mattered three years ago, but with Miyuki becoming older, Tatsuya began to feel troubled about where he should rest his gaze.

"Onii-sama, would you like something to drink?"

"Sounds good. I would like a coffee then."

"Certainly."

In an advanced country where the use of Home Automation Robots (HAR) was widespread, women—as well as men—who involved themselves with kitchen work belonged to the minority. But Miyuki made it a point to try and do as much work as possible. Tatsuya had initially protested, but Miyuki stubbornly maintained that it was her way of being of use to him. And she strictly kept to that reasoning. When friends came to visit, she would normally leave the kitchen work it to the various HARs they had around the house.

Tatsuya pulled out his screen terminal and began to read several articles on Gravity-Type Magic while Miyuki prepared his coffee.

"Onii-sama, here you go."

She placed the cup on the side table, came around from the other side and sat beside him. The coffee on the table was black, while the one she held had milk added to it. It was strange to see how different their personal tastes were even though they were siblings.

"It tastes really good. Thank you, Miyuki."

And as always, Miyuki smiled brightly and lowered her head. There was no need to compliment further.

Neither of them struck up a forced conversation; neither was bothered by the presence of the other.

Miyuki suddenly stood up. "It's almost time to make dinner."

Tatsuya didn't bother offering to help. He merely handed over his coffee cup to his sister's outstretched hand. "Very well. Thank you in advance."

"Of course. Anything for Onii-sama."

As Miyuki hummed a tune to herself while cooking, Tatsuya kept reading while thinking about the first day of school.

It had been a far more interesting day than he had expected. All Tatsuya had wanted out of high school was happiness for Miyuki and a high school diploma for himself so he could pursue a career in magic engineering. But he got to meet intriguing people like Chiba Erika, Saegusa Mayumi, and Uzumaki Naruto.

He couldn't suppress the light smirk that appeared on his face. _Frog in the well, indeed. _While he made every effort to keep himself humbled, Tatsuya had thought that he knew quite a bit about the magic world. But judging from the conversation they had over lunch, there was still quite a bit he had to learn.

He wasn't capable of strong emotions, but Tatsuya was certainly looking forward to the coming year.

He was so lost in thought that he almost missed Miyuki's mood suddenly plummeting.

"Miyuki?"

"Onii-sama…" she said in a strained tone.

"I…I received a message from those people…"

"Those people? Ah…did Father just call you? You should have picked up," Tatsuya said neutrally. He honestly didn't care about his father at all, but he had to be careful with his words and tone to prevent Miyuki from getting even more upset.

"He sounded excited about his daughter's school admission yet…Onii-sama…did he leave a message for you as well?"

Tatsuya sighed. He didn't need to take out his phone to check, but he did anyways. "No, it's the same as always."

"I see…no matter how you look at it…this rudeness…I…I had a fleeting hope that they might have sent Onii-sama even something as small as an email…but…"

Tatsuya stood up and walked over to Miyuki. He gently embraced her when he saw ice gathering around the floor and on the walls. "Calm down."

"I'm very sorry. I became upset."

Tatsuya looked into his sister's eyes. "Look, I ignored Father's demands that I help out with the company and entered high school instead. So it's natural that he would be upset at me, right?"

Four Leaves Technology. It was the company where their father served as the developmental section chief and the vice-president of the company. Of course, Tatsuya was far more involved with the company that he let Miyuki believe, even as a part-time worker, but he didn't want to make her worried that he was overworked.

"It's infuriating for our father to act so pathetically childish, it's infuriating. It's natural that a fifteen-year-old would attend high school. And if he was worried about overstepping boundaries and contacting the Guardian of a candidate for the next head, he should have made the effort to call our aunt to get permission."

Tatsuya felt slightly ill at the thought of his father calling his aunt for something as insignificant as a congratulatory message for entrance into a high school. The Yotsuba Family didn't operate that way. If anything, it was probably more natural that his father not talk to him at all.

"Miyuki, I really don't mind, so you really shouldn't be upset. It's likely that he was simply following protocol for how things are done in the Yotsuba Family. You are a candidate to be the heir whereas I am merely a Guardian. We aren't quite a normal family."

Tatsuya sighed as Miyuki's displeasure melted away when he wrapped his arms around her again.

"If you say so, Onii-sama."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Hey, so I decided to start this story for fun. I'm not too invested in it and I'm very busy these days, so updates will be very slow and sporadic - I apologize for that in advance.

As for the story itself, once we get the first few chapters out of the way, it'll mostly follow Naruto and his adventures. I'm certain that this will upset quite a few Tatsuya fans, but it's really hard to write a story following a character who's perfect in just about every single way and simultaneously has the emotional development of a rock. In any case, there will still be a significant overlap, so it's not like Tatsuya will be out of the picture.

I'm sure people will have a few questions about the following:

Naruto's power level - Unfortunately, just about all the high school kids in the _Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei _are overpowered and to keep things balanced, Naruto won't be breaking that trend. There were already several hints about how strong Naruto is in this chapter. While Tatsuya's _magic _is highly specific, he himself is a jack-of-all-trades; he's a powerful fighter, he's good an espionage, he has a great deal of theoretical knowledge in many different fields, he's a world-class engineer in CAD software, he can play politics, etc. Naruto, on the other hand, is just a well-rounded fighter who can't do anything but fight.

Pairings - At the very least, there _is _one planned for Naruto. Given Naruto's background, it should be painfully obvious as to who his future partner is (hint: she's not named in this chapter and won't be for some time).


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I don't own _Naruto_ or _Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei_.

* * *

><p>In the slightly chilly, refreshing air of the early morning, Miyuki glided up the hill road on her roller blades, her long hair and skirt fluttering in the wind. Without kicking off the ground to propel her, she zoomed up the gentle but long hill road against gravity.<p>

She estimated that her speed was around 60 kilometers per hour (37.2 mph).

Miyuki was using a multi-process magic spell that incorporated a Deceleration-Type Magic to decrease the acceleration due to magic, Speed-Type Magic to increase her forward momentum, and Movement-Type Magic to constantly change the direction of her motion vectors. It didn't look particularly difficult, but the constant adjusting of the motion vectors took quite a bit of her focus.

She barely had the luxury to notice that her brother was effectively keeping pace beside her.

Unlike her, her brother was using was magic that would amplify both acceleration and deceleration forces generated when he kicked off the ground and magic that would suppress his upward motion in order to prevent him from jumping too high.

A small surge of guilt passed through her body. She merely joined her brother on a whim, but he…he did this sort of difficult training everyday to push himself to his limits.

All for her sake.

"Shall I slow down?" her brother asked.

Miyuki schooled her features so he wouldn't notice how taxing the training was on her mind. "That won't be necessary Onii-sama. Otherwise, it wouldn't be training."

Their destination was about ten minutes away from their house—at the speed they were moving—on top of a slightly elevated hill. The building itself looked like a temple, but the people who were gathered there were anything but priests or monks.

Kokonoe-sensei would always claim that they were training to be "shinobi," but in reality, most of the people there were practitioners of ancient magic who wanted to learn taijutsu and supplement it with basic ninjutsu techniques.

The atmosphere was generally a bit stiff for girls, but Miyuki glided in on her rollerblades without a single moment of hesitation. Not only was Kokonoe-sensei someone she respected and told her not to worry about the other disciples and teachers present, but there was also no way her brother would allow any harm to come to her.

"Miyuki-kun! Long time no see."

A merry voice suddenly called out from Miyuki's blind spot. Miyuki, while standing at the front yard of the main temple building, had turned around to look worriedly at her older brother who was buried in a mass of people.

No doubt, Kokonoe-sensei had set her brother up to be attacked the moment he set foot in the temple. While she received a queen's welcome, her brother did not. When it had happened the first time, Miyuki's finger had been a centimeter away from hitting the numbers on her CAD to activate Niflheim to freeze everyone for disrespecting her brother.

It took her brother to explain that they weren't disrespecting him, but rather favoring her.

Miyuki wasn't sure if the latter explanation was particularly better. She held herself back from shivering.

"Sensei," she said in a tone that she hoped didn't betray her exasperation, "Please stop erasing your presence and sneaking up on me every time I come here." Despite being on her guard, the same kind of thing kept happening over and over again, to the point that she regularly expected his antics.

"Telling me not to sneak about, Miyuki-kun, is giving me a tall order. I'm a shinobi. Sneaking about is what I do."

She looked at the "shinobi" who, with a clean-shaven head and was wearing a black robe, looked more like a monk than a ninja.

"I keep telling you that in this day and age, a ninja is not a valid occupation. I wish that you would come to realize this as soon as possible. I certainly mention it to you quite often."

And as always, Kokonoe-sensei ignored her protests as he wagged his finger back and forth in an almost rude manner. "Ah, but I'm not a ninja. I'm a shinobi. It's a tradition, a way of life…not an occupation. And no matter how much you may wish it weren't so, plenty of shinobi exist in this day and age."

Miyuki sighed. "I respect your legitimacy. So please stop trying to be so mysterious. Seriously, why are you so…"

Another sigh.

_…frivolous_, she finished in her mind, having given up trying to correct Kokonoe-sensei. _I should be used to this now. _She forced herself to calm down. Her brother loved refined women and she had to maintain the appearance of being one as much as possible.

"Tsk. Tsk. Miyuki-kun, it's not good to say one thing, but mean another. Shinobi are quite legitimate…even in this day and age."

"And I have admitted as much," she asked serenely, revealing nothing about her true feelings on the matter.

Despite his antics, Kokonoe Yakumo, the self-proclaimed shinobi, was one of the world's foremost experts in ninjutsu, a brand of ancient magic that focused on improving the practitioner's combat prowess. Of course, the "transformations" and "cloning" in the ninjutsu of storytellers ended up being illusions and high-speed movement, but the magic aspects were definitely real.

"You're not quite understanding my point, but never mind that for now. Is that the uniform of the First high school?" he asked, blatantly changing the subject

"Yes, we had the entrance ceremony yesterday."

"I see. I see. Mmm, it's nice."

"We came to inform you about our entrance ceremony. But given your information network, I believe you probably already knew—"

"That brand-new green uniform, neat and clean, has some sort of hidden charm."

"..." Miyuki mentally sighed for what felt like the hundredth time. "Kokonoe-sensei?"

He wasn't listening, however, and appeared to be lost in his own world.

"Almost like a flower bud that is about to open, a shoot about to sprout. Ah yes, this is truly—"

At this massively rising tension, Miyuki slowly started backing away lest she be sexually harassed.

Fortunately, Kokonoe-sensei quickly twisted around while raising his left hand above his head…

_Thwak!_

…just in time to block the arm swinging down.

"Master, you're frightening Miyuki. Could you please calm down a bit?"

_As expected of Onii-sama. _Miyuki thought as she swooned. She felt her face flush. _Onii-sama will protect me no matter what the situation._

His magic allowed him to keep tabs on her physical state and he must have known that she was getting rather nervous from Kokonoe-sensei's…lack of propriety.

"Not bad, Tatsuya-kun. Attacking me from the back like that…"

While blocking Tatsuya's right arm with his left, Yakumo lashed out with his right first. Even Miyuki could tell her brother wouldn't have time to block properly.

Her brother, however, shifted his arms, to catch the punch in between his arms, before launching a kick. Kokonoe-sensei sprang forward before aiming a kick of his own at the back of her brother's head.

Her brother ducked his head just before the kick landed and used the momentum to move into a forward flip.

Kokonoe-sensei and her brother quickly sprang apart before rushing in again.

As the two exchanged blows, Miyuki's mind went back to what Kokonoe-sensei had told her earlier. _Shinobi are quite legitimate…even in this day and age…huh…_

* * *

><p>"Whew," Kokonoe-sensei said in a light-hearted tone as he tapped his shaved head. "If it's just pure taijutsu, I probably won't be able to beat you, Tatsuya-kun."<p>

Tatsuya didn't let the praise get to his head as the disciples around them muttered and gasped in shock. The envy and admiration was palpable in the air. He merely jumped forward, aided by Acceleration-Type Magic this time, taking Kokonoe-sensei's words that the battle was no longer a battle of pure martial arts.

Every punch and kick was blocked by a magic barrier before it could land. No matter how much Tatsuya used his sensory abilities, Kokonoe-sensei seemed to dance just outside of his reach, only getting within range to launch a powerful blow, and using ancient magic in unexpected ways to throw him off his rhythm.

A few more minutes of this exchange and Tatsuya found himself lying on the ground in defeat.

"Sensei, here." Miyuki said, as she brought towels and water. "Would Onii-sama like some as well?"

"Ooh, Miyuki-kun, thanks."

"Give me a moment," Tatsuya gasped as he struggled to sit up.

"Onii-sama, are you alright?" Miyuki asked, clearly worried that he was having trouble sitting up.

Tatsuya shook his head. "I just need to catch my breath." He looked at his sister who was kneeling next to him on the dirt. "Ah, sorry, I got your clothes dirty."

"This much is nothing," she replied as she stood up and took out her CAD.

Unlike most magicians their age, Miyuki had the phone-type generalized CAD. It had to be carried at all times, but unlike the bracelet-type CAD, the phone-type CAD had the benefit of being able to be used with one hand. Since advanced magicians, especially combat magicians, disliked having both arms occupied in some way, most advanced magicians preferred the phone-type as their generalized CAD.

Miyuki was easily on that level.

Most students, however, were rarely in such situations where it was absolutely crucial to have at least one hand free and as such, the bracelet and cuff models were more popular.

Tatsuya watched as the CAD converted the psion signals from Miyuki's hand into electric signals—the activation sequence—before sending those signals back into Miyuki's body as biological neural pulses to the brain where it was sent to her magic calculation area to be processed into a magic sequence.

A fleeting fog appeared out of nowhere and wrapped around Miyuki from her skirt to her black leggings, all the way down to her sandals. Particles also flew out into air from Tatsuya's clothes and body as well. After the thin mist cleared up, their clothes and Tatsuya's body were completely cleaned.

"Thanks, Miyuki."

"Onii-sama, would you like breakfast? If you want, Sensei, you may join as well," Miyuki said as she raised the basket containing the sandwiches she had prepared that morning.

"Ah, please don't mind if I do then," Kokonoe-sensei replied brightly as he reached out and grabbed a sandwich.

"That reminds me Kokonoe-sensei, what did you mean when you said that shinobi are legitimate even in this day and age?"

"Hm…" the false monk said as he took a bite. "To be honest, I'm not sure how much I'm at a liberty to say, but I'm not the only shinobi around."

"There are other 'monks' like Kokonoe-sensei?"

Kokonoe-sensei laughed at that. "I'm a monk by profession and shinobi by tradition, so I would have to answer 'no' to your question." His light in his eyes grew serious. "However, there are shinobi who are assassins by profession, a modern day ninja, if you will. While such ninjas are quite rare here, I still urge you take precaution."

* * *

><p>Naruto was bored.<p>

There was no other way to describe his situation. The teacher, Satou-sensei, was droning on about the Four Great Systems and Eight Major Types of Systematic Magic.

Naruto already knew parts of magic theory that was beyond advanced. It had been necessary if he wanted to survive. His situation was unique and remarkable as he had been training in magic since he was five and fighting _shinobi_ by the age of eight. The Pervy Sage had wanted Naruto to live out the philosophy of his father—to integrate himself in the modern world despite being a shinobi—and had made sure to educate him on modern magic.

But that didn't change the fact the Naruto felt that this whole school business was a waste of time.

He had hoped that his immediate classmates would be friendly and interesting, but the only two people he had gotten a chance to talk to were arrogant morons who only wanted to talk about how superior they were compared to the rest of the freshman class. The boy sitting in front of him was particularly annoying. Morisaki Shun was his name, if Naruto remembered correctly.

He reeked with the stench of self-righteousness and a sense of entitlement.

And judging from how the other boys in his class had gotten along with the obnoxious Morisaki, they too were students who felt they were superior to others.

Naruto mentally grumbled. He felt like an old man sitting among children. The analogy was apt, considering that most of these _kids _probably never fought in a life-or-death battle before. And Naruto fought in those kinds of struggles dozens of times.

The Class 1E students were significantly easier to get along with, but there was still a huge disconnect between him and them. After all, it wasn't as though he could really open up to them.

Maybe it was probably better if he just gave up on looking for friends at school. To hell with what the Pervy Sage said about making bonds with other people. And besides, he already had Shiho as a friend, right?

With that, Naruto let his mind focus on more important matters…

…such as memorizing the order of the activation sequences on his new CAD that Shiho had forced him to buy.

In the end, he bought one of the phone-type CAD models. He figured it was better to have at least one hand completely free instead of having to constantly reposition and maneuver both his arms to press the buttons on a bracelet- or cuff-type CAD.

Not that Naruto had any intention of letting it seriously affect him. He did check in his "normal" CAD to maintain the guise that he was following the rules, but he snuck his general purpose combat CADs by strapping them on his thighs underneath his pants as he had always done in the past. His knife-integrated CADs hidden up his sleeves as well.

In a _real _battle where he fully intended to kill his enemy and hide the truth about his abilities, Naruto could simply "clone" any of the CADs he had into his hands as long as his CADs were in contact with his body.

And if some idiot that he wasn't supposed to kill attacked him, Naruto could quickly shred that part of his pants with the hidden blades he carried in his sleeves or just press the numbers through his pants itself. He was well beyond the point of having to look at his CADs to figure out where the numbers were.

In any case, there was no way he was going to willingly disarm himself. Ever.

Nonetheless, he figured getting acclimated to his newest CAD would be for the best. Maybe he could fool people into thinking the relatively few spells on the single normal CAD was all he could do and then surprise them with the large scale lethal attacks from his combat CADs.

Naruto grinned. That would probably work. He'd have to rework parts of his taijutsu to use more forearm and elbow to account for constantly having a CAD in his hand, but it would give him an extra element of surprise.

"Uzumaki, what's the fundamental difference between Speed-Type and Movement-Type Magic?"

Naruto mentally snorted. The teacher hadn't even gotten to that point in his lecture and was asking a question Naruto couldn't possibly answer, but Naruto knew that answer to that question anyway.

"How it affects the motion vectors," Naruto drawled out lazily.

"Wrong! Speed-Type Magic affects inertia and—"

Naruto's eyes became alert at that. "Pardon me, Satou-sensei, but I'm _not _wrong," Naruto snapped.

"Oh, that's quite the statement from someone who was zoning off and someone who barely got above the average score on magic theory on the entrance exam."

There was a smattering of snickers at that.

Naruto rolled his eyes, noting that the teacher conveniently didn't mention that he was number one overall in the practical portion of the test and fourteenth overall. And there was the fact that purposely chose the incorrect answer for one out of every three questions on the entrance exam to in an effort to salvage the situation of scoring so high on the practical exam. He figured he would have been the runaway number one, and probably the number one of all time, if he had put his mind to the entrance exam.

Naruto wasn't a genius by any means, but this was all stuff he learned before. He could sleep his way through the entire first year and probably ace the tests. Even if he couldn't, he'd still pass by virtue of his practical scores.

Not that it mattered. Naruto didn't really care for their respect. But at the same time, he wasn't going to let this teacher talk smack like that. Naruto hadn't really been paying full attention, but he definitely wasn't zoning off.

"Putting aside the fact that you didn't even cover that topic in lecture yet, how about this woefully average student tell you the explanation you were going to give and then tell you why that explanation is stupid, Satou-sensei?" Naruto said, in the rudest possible tone he could muster.

The class instantly fell silent. No one publicly disrespected a teacher like that.

Naruto didn't wait for the teacher's response. "You were going to say that Speed-Type Magic directly alters the inertial state of the affected body and its constituents while Movement-Type Magic merely manipulates the object's speed and path without changing the inertial state. Moreover, you were probably going to show us the classic example of moving an egg from one basket to the next and how the egg shatters if the inertial state isn't adjusted properly."

"Tch." The teacher let out a small grunt at the perfect explanation and the accurate prediction of how the lecture on the topic would begin.

Naruto ignored him. "But that explanation is needlessly wordy and requires an understanding of what inertial states actually are, which, in my opinion, is completely pointless. Instead of wasting time on a useless discussion of physics, you could simply explain the difference by showing that Speed-Type Magic merely changes the magnitude of the motion vector while Movement-Type magic just lays another motion vector of different magnitude and/or direction on top of the pre-existing motion vector."

Even his own explanation was wordier than he would have liked. It would have been simpler to say Speed-Type Magic affects momentum and Movement-Type Magic focuses more on direction changes. But that explanation wasn't entirely accurate and Naruto had wanted to prove a point to the teacher.

The class was still deathly silent and the tension in the air was palpable.

After a long time, Satou-sensei spoke. "Uzumaki, I'll admit that the explanation was surprisingly accurate and precise despite its simplicity, and I'll also admit that you _may _have been paying attention, but you're going to have to fix that attitude of yours."

Naruto shrugged in a careless manner. "The attitude was just in response to your blatantly false accusation that I was sleeping in class. I was not and you openly insulted me, so I simply repaid the favor."

The teacher frowned. "The faculty was warned about this from your guardian," Naruto internally grimaced at the mention of the Pervy Sage, "but to think that someone could be so disrespectful…" Satou-sensei sighed. "Uzumaki, I'll let your attitude slide this time around both in a gesture of good faith and to reward you for your admittedly excellent explanation, but talking back and showing cheek to the teachers is not the norm in Japan. Understood?"

There were whispers around the room that had started after the teacher's comment that implied that Naruto was a foreigner. No doubt, they were curious about him now.

Naruto grit his teeth in annoyance. _Damn you, Pervy Sage! _

The Pervy Sage was always ten steps ahead. His godfather had probably predicted that Naruto was considering isolating himself after being thoroughly disappointed in his peers. He also probably expected Naruto to simultaneously lash out at the teachers here who were used to being respected for no other reason than the fact that they were teachers.

To solve both problems, the Pervy Sage had probably dropped a comment to the faculty about Naruto being the stereotypical American student who was free-spirited and occasionally rude at times. That would get the other students interested in Naruto, forcing Naruto to interact with them, _and _keep Naruto from acting out too much in class in the future for fear of having more of his background revealed to his peers.

Damn. It really was a solid plan.

The asshole.

The Pervy Sage always made things a big pain in the ass.

While his blond hair had already made it obvious that he wasn't fully Japanese, Naruto had been trying to pass as a descendant of one of the foreigners who settled down in Japan before World War III. Now he was going to have to spend the rest of the damn period coming up with another cover story and one that was consistent with the small lie he had told Tatsuya yesterday.

And lunchtime was going to be anything but peaceful.

Great. Just great.

* * *

><p>Tatsuya closed the program on his information terminal as the final lecture for the morning ended. Surprisingly, he found the lecture engaging. While the topics on magic were elementary, Tatsuya found the theoretical explanation of magic within the context of math and science rather fascinating. Even bits of history had been thrown in.<p>

Tatsuya figured that this was how the magic high schools in Japan incorporated "traditional" subjects taught in normal high schools.

Then someone spoke up in a friendly tone.

"Tatsuya, what are you going to do until lunch?"

Tatsuya lifted his head to look up. Ah, it was Leo, the boy he had met at the beginning of morning classes. And just like earlier, as if it were his signature pose, Leo was resting his chin on his arms crossed over his chair.

It was no longer customary, at both Japanese middle school and high school, to eat in the classroom. Despite advancements in both waterproofing and dust-proofing technology, information terminals were precision instruments and did not respond well to having food, especially liquids, spilled onto them. Most students ate in the cafeteria, courtyard, rooftop, or the many clubrooms on campus and as a result, schools gave a bit more time to lunch.

Today, however, with how their class schedules worked, they have almost two hours for lunch. "Official" lunchtime wasn't until an hour later.

"I had been planning to go look through the reference catalog here on my terminal, but I'll go with you to wherever you're going."

Because magic education mostly began at the high school level, students were unfamiliar with many of the specialized courses that were being offered. The reference catalogue was basically video feeds of past lectures so that students would have a better grasp of what they could learn in those specialized courses.

"Hm…okay. I'm heading to the workshop. Want to come?"

"Not the arena?" Tatsuya asked with a raised eyebrow. The extroverted and casual Leo didn't seem like the academic type at all. It was strange to imagine Leo fiddling around with precision instruments in the workshop.

"I guess I would seem to be the outdoor type," Leo said with a laugh, "so you're not completely off base."

"My apologies for assuming, nonetheless."

"No worries. But yeah…my Reinforcement Magic produces the greatest effect when combined with weapons and weapon-integrated CADs. So I want to be able to maintain those as much as possible."

From what Tatsuya remembered from their morning conversation, Leo wanted to become a part of the Riot Police. He would have to use batons, shields, machetes, and other equipment compatible with Reinforcement Magic. Tatsuya's respect for the other boy went up; Leo had a far firmer grasp of just what he could excel at.

A voice interrupted them. "If you're going to the workshop, why don't you come with us?"

"Shibata-san, are you also going to the workshop?" Leo asked.

"Yes. Like Shiba-kun, I also want to be a magic engineer."

"Ah, I see!" Erika said with glee, jumping into the conversation. "Mizuki, you must be quite smart then!" Erika turned to look at Leo with mock disdain. "But still, no matter how you look at it, you're only built for physical stuff. Go check out the arena instead."

Tatsuya sighed. It was beginning again. This morning, Leo and Erika had nearly started a row because of Erika's needling.

"I don't want to be told that by a wild animal like you!"

And of course, Leo didn't have the grace to take the jokes lightly. _Tit for tat, I suppose._

"How rude! You can't be saying things like that to a girl!"

Tatsuya decided to intervene. "Stop it both of you. You've only just met today, right?"

Neither of them backed down.

"You must have been a bitter enemy from a previous life."

"I can agree with that! You were some stupid bear ravaging the fields, and I was the hunter hired to get rid of you."

"Alright, let's go! We're wasting time," Mizuki half-shouted, half-pleaded. "Nara-san, do you want to join us?"

The response was a light snore. It appeared that Naruto _hadn't _been lying about Shikamaru's ability to fall asleep in record time.

"Well, that's his answer," Erika chortled. "Let's go!"

* * *

><p>"Quite the interesting bunch, don't you think, Mari?"<p>

Mayumi was in the Student Council room, looking at the monitor showing the profiles of several first-year students with her best friend at school. Mari, the Public Moral Committee chief, was not part of the Student Council and hadn't seen these results. It was technically forbidden for anyone outside the Student Council to see these results, but Mayumi had a healthy disregard for the rules.

After all, if she ever got caught, she could simply drop the name "Saegusa" and no one would dare say anything to her.

Mari looked at her strangely. "I'm not sure I follow. Why are you showing me the scores from the entrance exam?"

Mayumi gave a coy smile. "To get your thoughts. It started off with a passing curiosity when I looked at the expanded rankings for the first-year students." She pointed to Tatsuya. "Shiba Tatsuya, Course 2 student. He scored first on the written portion on the exam." She pointed to Naruto. "Uzumaki Naruto, Course 1 student with overall rank of fourteen. But he scored first on the practical portion of the exam and the highest ever in the history of our school." She pointed to Miyuki. "And our dear freshman representative scored second on both, but managed to get first overall. Don't you think that's quite odd?"

"It's true that unlike most fields, in magic, practical abilities go hand-in-hand with theoretical knowledge. But something like this has happened before, so no…"

"But if you look specifically at the scores, it makes no sense. Tatsuya-kun was the runaway first place in theory. There's never been a case where the gap between scores was this high. He scored a total of forty-eight points higher, nearly seven points higher per exam, than the second place Miyuki-san. And he somehow ended up as a Course 2 student. And Naruto-kun might even be more interesting even though his situation is a bit more plausible. He got first in the practical and _eight-sixth_ in theory. Here, look."

"An activation time of 217 milliseconds, 18 milliseconds faster than second place Shiba Miyuki. Similar levels of gap in interference strength and magic capacity," Mari read out loud with wide eyes. "This is crazy, Mayumi! These scores are almost unheard of! It _is _rather strange that someone this capable would do relatively poorly on the theory."

"Well, he did lose out on complexity of magic design to Shiba Miyuki-san," Mayumi said lightly, "so we initially thought that he was some sort of unrefined brute who was lucky to be born with a large magic processor." Mayumi giggled. "But…when I saw that the answers on his essay questions were surprisingly accurate although a bit concise, I went back to look at his answers on the multiple choice portion."

"And?"

"He rarely missed two questions in a row," Mayumi crowed triumphantly, "and never three times in a row."

"So what?" Mari asked in confusion. "Wouldn't it be more strange if he missed like four or five questions in a row?"

Mayumi shook her head. "If Naruto-kun randomly selected answers on the test, there would be portions where he missed three, four, or even five questions in a row. Statistically, random doesn't necessarily _look _random. Go flip a coin a thousand times; I guarantee there will be cases where you flip the same side five or six times even though that's statistically unlikely for any given set."

"But he's _not _just answering questions randomly," Mari disputed.

"That makes things even more suspicious. If Naruto didn't know answers on the test, then it makes no sense for him to miss questions at a roughly equal rate throughout the exam when the harder questions are generally located towards the end."

"So you're saying he intentionally tanked the exam?" Mari asked incredulously. "Why would a first-year do that?"

"Who knows?" Mayumi smiled. "But I'm fairly certain that his _relatively _low rank was intentional on his part. The practical portion comes first and scores are given out immediately; he must have panicked and tried to do as poorly as he could on the theory portion to not attract attention."

She felt so strongly about this that she even went and looked at video records on the school on the test day—using less than proper means, of course—to see if she could confirm her theory, but there was nothing to substantiate it.

Nonetheless, that was the only explanation she could think of. His scores on each of the seven subjects on the written portion ranged from a seventy to seventy-four percent, something that rarely happened, as students were far better certain subjects than others. Furthermore, most of his answers on his essay portion had been _so _accurate that it was impossible for such a student to do so poorly. Well "poorly" considering his practical scores. After all, Naruto _still _scored in the top half of admitted students for the written portion.

"What kind of monsters are these kids?" Mari looked on in shock, this time at Tatsuya's scores. "A hundred percent on magic engineering and magic theory and ninety-six percent _average_ on a exams meant to have a fifty percent average among applicants and seventy percent average among admitted students? There are probably _second-years _who wouldn't be getting these numbers on the entrance exam."

"I know, right? And it gets more unusual from there." Mayumi pulled up profiles of other students. "Nara Shikamaru. Look at his score spread."

"Nara Shikamaru, Course 2 student. Overall rank of a hundred and ninety-seven. On the written portion…scores ranged from perfect to zero, with an average of sixty….and…there's a note that he didn't miss a single question and that the only points lost were from leaving questions blank," Mari deadpanned. "He got hundred percent on the first four written exams, twenty percent on the fifth exam, and left the final two topics completely blank."

"I checked the video recordings and he appeared to be sleeping half-way into the exam period," Mayumi added helpfully.

"What the hell?" Mari shouted in exasperation. "Do these kids think school is a joke?"

_A joke…_ That would probably be an apt way to explain Shikamaru's scores. He had essentially decided at some point during the testing period that his overall score would be sufficient and just skipped the remainder of the examination period.

"Rank three in the written portion is another Course 2 student. I believe his name was Yoshida Mikihiko," Mayumi continued. "Rank nineteen, Shibata Mizuka, Course 2 student. Rank twenty-four, Chiba Erika, Course 2 student."

Mari looked a bit sour at the mention of that last name. Given her circumstances, Mayumi couldn't blame her. It was hard to deal with a hostile sibling of a significant other.

"So…interesting…eh? We have quite a few unbalanced first-years."

"No doubt," Mayumi agreed. "In that sense, on paper, Shiba Miyuki seems to be the most normal out of all of them. Well…this is all relative, of course. She still got one of the highest scores we've ever seen on the entrance exam."

"Normal on paper? So she's not normal in person?"

"I got a chance to meet most of them yesterday. Interestingly enough, with the exception of Yoshida-kun, all of them were socializing in the hallway. Let's just say that Miyuki-san seems a bit…um…unnecessarily focused on her older brother." Mayumi had immediately saw the telltale signs of a rampant brocon and decided to cut her losses. And it was a bonus that the entire situation made cute little Hanzou-kun a bit upset.

Mayumi saw Mari's eyes light up. It was obvious that she didn't seem to register her complaint about Miyuki. "Wait, two Course 1 students with four Course 2 students?"

Knowing just what Mari was excited about, Mayumi felt her lips widen in a bright but somewhat rueful smile. _Well, there goes the opportunity to talk to Mari more about Tatsuya-kun._

After all, Mayumi had her interests and Mari had hers. Mayumi couldn't force Mari to be interested in a Course 2 student no matter how much of a genius he was in theoretical matters. Mari was always far more interested in the application of theory whereas Mayumi _loved _magic theory itself.

"I know, right? Miyuki-san is Tatsuya-kun's sister so that explains her presence there, but I was shocked to see Naruto-kun getting along with the Course 2 students on the first day of school. That brings me to the second point. You're still looking for a couple of first-years to fill up the slots for the Public Morals Committee, right? Naruto-kun seems to be the kind of person you demand on your committee."

"Oh? I like the way you think," Mari said with a smirk. "But what about you?" Mari gestured towards the screen where the answers to Tatsuya's essay questions were showing. "You seem to be far more interested in Shiba than Uzumaki. It's not like you can include him on the Student Council though."

Mayumi raised an eyebrow. Oh? So maybe Mari _wasn't _as blind as she pretended to be at times.

"He keeps trying to avoid me as well," Mayumi pouted. "I just want to get to know him a bit."

A groan of exasperation came from the other girl. "If he's half as smart as he appears to be, then he'd stay far away from you. Besides, isn't it enough that you bully poor Hattori around? Do you really have to find a new plaything? Have some mercy on your underclassmen."

Mayumi flatly ignored what had just been said. "I'll just have to think of something. Maybe I can make a subcommittee under the Student Council or something. I could probably drag in Yoshida-kun and Shikamaru-kun that way, too."

* * *

><p>"Shiba-san!"<p>

Naruto groaned when he heard the shouts from the boys in his class. It was beginning again. Classes had just finished and students were getting ready to go home.

Shiba Miyuki had swiftly left the classroom the moment classes ended to pick up her CAD as quickly as possible and go home, almost certainly to avoid the waves of star-struck teenaged boys. Morisaki Shun was particularly persistent and had been close to starting a scene during lunch with the Class 1E students that Naruto had met in the last day.

Fortunately, Tatsuya had managed to keep his head high and walked away to defuse the situation, but that only made the Class 1A boys even bolder. During lunch they had sat as close as possible to Miyuki—enough to make her uncomfortable—and attempted to pass it off as something that couldn't be helped because of the large number of students at the dining table. Something similar had happened when everyone went to see Saegusa Mayumi give a demonstration of her famed remote precision magic.

No girl would be pleased by that and Miyuki had been no exception, but judging how forward they were, Morisaki and the other boys of Class 1A didn't get the message.

The silver lining to all of this was that no one had bothered to ask Naruto about his background, as they were all too focused on Miyuki.

Nonetheless, Naruto wasn't callous enough to appreciate joy derived from another person's suffering. He sighed and got up to follow the rest of the boys to pick up his "normal" CAD.

Around fifteen minutes later, he found himself outside in a large group of people near the entrance. The people surrounding Miyuki had grown and included both girls and boys now.

Miyuki was grasping the hem of Tatsuya's uniform and looking at her brother with an anxious face. Naruto was too far away to hear what they were whispering, but given what he already knew about those two, he had a pretty clear idea.

The words "onii-sama" and "it's okay" were probably being exchanged dozens of times.

"Stop being such losers! Miyuki-san has said that she wishes to go home with her brother. It's not your place to say otherwise!"

Naruto almost gaped at the shy girl tearing into the Class 1A students, but he figured every person had a limit before they snapped. Mizuki had been present each time Morisaki and the others had tried to accost Miyuki and had suffered a great deal of disrespect in the process along with Leo, Tatsuya, and Erika. Shikamaru had been present for lunch, but had opted to skip out on Mayumi's practical demonstration in order to take a nap. That small reprieve from the snobbish elitism was probably why he wasn't near boiling point now like the others.

_Or maybe he's just too damn lazy to care…_

"Hey, we weren't talking to you, you damn Weed!"

"Get out of our way!"

The air began to grow thicker and more tense as the Class 1A, especially the guys, began to throw away any pretense of being civil.

"Hasn't Miyuki-san treated you guys well enough already? If she wanted to go with you, she would have said so! What right do you have to try and tear those two apart?"

Miyuki's blush was visible even from this distance. Naruto sweatdropped. _Not a good choice of words, Miss Shibata Mizuki…_

"We're asking her for more time right now! We have plenty of things to talk to her about!" Nods accompanied this statement.

"Yeah, this is an important matter for Class 1A!" Surprisingly, this came from one of Naruto's female classmates. So it wasn't just the boys who were parading around their status as "Blooms."

A tall and stocky Course 2 student standing next to Erika gave a hearty laugh. _Oooh…looks like Tatsuya made another friend. _"Why…isn't that just so convenient?" he said sarcastically. "It sounds like self-justification to me. But seriously, just wait until tomorrow or something. It's not the end of the world if you don't get to talk to her now."

"And it's clear that you _didn't _get her consent because you're going through the trouble of trying to keep her from leaving school," Erika added in a biting tone. "There's only so much you can do before it starts to reek of desperation."

"Shut the hell up! Another class, much less a class of Weeds, has no right to interfere in the matters concerning us Blooms!"

That was already twice the taboo word "Weed" was used in the last minute or so despite school regulations prohibiting it.

Having suffered discrimination in his childhood—so severe that it led to his exile and current life on the run from assassins—Naruto wasn't going to let such behavior stand. He was well past boiling point.

"Then how about another Bloom?" Naruto called out as he stepped forward. He shook his head. "Seriously…you guys are ridiculous. You've spent the entire day harassing her, even sexually harassing her at some points during the day. It's pretty painful to watch and pretty obvious what you want."

"What the hell do you know, Uzumaki?" Morisaki sneered. "You're just some loser who doesn't even pay attention in class." The air was instantly filled with hoots and hisses.

Naruto sighed, trying not to whip out his knife and stab the other boy. "Morisaki, you were bragging this morning about your family's supposedly famous Quick Draw technique, right?" Naruto didn't really pay attention to the Hundred Families so he didn't really know whether Morisaki was blowing hot air or not. In any case, it was irrelevant here. "The Quick Draw may be impressive, but you should a little smarter about _what _you draw out. Girls don't like it when you draw out and wave your less-than-impressive sausage around."

The implication was lost on no one. Naruto had all but stated that Morisaki was trying to get into Miyuki's pants. _Everyone _knew it was true, but now it was out in the open…along with a crack about the size of Morisaki's manhood.

As with what happened in the classroom, everyone in the area fell silent and Morisaki's hand inched towards the side of his belt where his gun-shaped CAD was.

Naruto casually put his hands behind his head and whistled. "You know…this sort of atmosphere reminds me of what happened in class. Surely, you don't want to make the same mistake that Satou-sensei did," Naruto paused. "Getting your ass kicked doesn't really help when you're trying to impress girls."

Morisaki growled and whipped out his CAD. "You bastard! I'll make you pay for that!"

"Oh?" Naruto murmured in a low voice, while raising his killing intent, making almost everyone present take a step or two back. The others probably hadn't felt such dense killing intent before. "I suppose I can claim self-defense now."

Morisaki looked a bit unsettled as well although he still looked livid. _I guess he isn't completely full of hot air if he's still gearing up for a fight in this kind of atmosphere. _"I'll…I'll have you know that I placed ninth overall and fourth on the practical portion! I'm better than you are!"

Naruto would have snorted at that, but that would have ruined the unsettling image he was trying to portray. The idiot. To think that people actually took comfort in superficial things like grades. Grades were useful in telling a person where he or she excelled and needed to improve. They were usually excellent at determining aptitude in a specific field, although there were occasionally exceptions that fell through the cracks.

But grades were _entirely_ worthless in determining the value of a person.

"Go on then, Quick _Shot_ Morisaki," Naruto taunted, this time suggesting something else entirely. Morisaki's face turned even brighter at the implication.

"You!"

"Pull the trigger," Naruto goaded, now with his hands in his coat pocket. Morisaki was no doubt waiting for Naruto to pull out his CAD, but Naruto didn't need to see his CAD to know where to push. Even though this particular CAD was a new one, it was a model that Naruto was familiar with so Naruto knew where the numbers were located on the CAD screen.

The school had sensors that detected magic and the order in which magic was used. It was critical for Morisaki to be the one to activate magic first. Otherwise, Naruto would be the one seen as the aggressor.

If Naruto ceded the first move to Morisaki, he would be at a slight disadvantage as Morisaki was using a specialized CAD. Naruto's significantly faster activation speed would close the gap, but some of that advantage was reduced by Naruto's use for a general purpose CAD. Naruto supposed it was doable if he _predicted _when Morisaki would launch his magic instead of reacting, but he wondered if it was just better to attack physically. _No, his sense of superiority comes from the fact that he's supposedly better at magic than others. It would have to be a purely magic fight._

Naruto would have to physically dodge whatever attack Morisaki would launch as he activated his own. Morisaki's finger tightened. Naruto narrowed his eyes and got read to tap his CAD screen.

_Thwack!_

"Eaak!"

The gun-shaped CAD went flying out of Morisaki's hand. _Not bad. I actually haven't seen too many people move so quickly before without magic. And she did it under heavy killing intent._

Erika stood in front of him with a baton out.

Tatsuya's new friend was there as well. "Uzumaki, right? We can do introductions later. Sorry, but we can take care of things on our own." The stocky brown-haired guy took a step forward and slammed a fist into his palm.

Naruto shrugged and back up. "Have it your way then."

If this Course 2 student and Erika were dead set on fighting on their own even after Naruto risked his neck to defend them, Naruto was more than willing to let them have the stage and slink back into the crowd; he had already made his point to Morisaki and publicly embarrassed him. As for the fighting itself, there was poetic justice about Morisaki getting his ass kicked by a girl as well.

The next few seconds made Naruto realize that he had relaxed a bit too soon. Since the killing intent had disappeared, people were becoming combative once more.

Several students raised their arms, which were armed with CADs.

"Stop…everyone stop!"

One of the Class 1A girls began her Activation Sequence before everyone else.

The expanding Activation Sequence shattered almost as quickly as it appeared.

_Gram Demolition? _No, the sequence wouldn't have shattered and would have been blown away. _Then some sort of psion bullet? _

"Stop right there! Using magic to attack others for any reason other than self-defense is not just a violation of school rules, it's a criminal offense!"

The girl who had just activated her magic paled. They had all recognized the voice.

Saegusa Mayumi, president of the Student Council.

"You are students from Classes 1A and 1E, right? Please come along," a cold voice ordered.

Everyone stiffened. Naruto recognized the speaker from introductions they day before at the entrance ceremony. Watanabe Mari, the chief of the Public Morals Committee.

Naruto raised an eyebrow as Tatsuya calmly stepped forward. "We're sorry, the prank went too far."

"Prank?" Watanabe asked.

Naruto was sure everyone echoed the same word in his or her heads.

"Yes. Morisaki's…Quick Draw…" Naruto let out a little snigger at the unintentional pauses, earning him a glare from Morisaki, "…is famous, so we asked him to give a demonstration for future reference, but it became too lifelike and out of control."

Morisaki's eyes went wide at that. Naruto gazed sharply at Tatsuya as well.

"Then why did that girl over there use an attack spell?"

"She was taken by surprise. However, it can be argued that starting Activation Sequences reflexively speaks loads about her skill."

Actually, something like that would be more the result of a lack of combat experience, but Naruto wasn't cruel or stupid enough to say that when Tatsuya was going out of his way to deescalate the situation.

"Your friends were about to be attacked by magic, but you still insist it was a prank?"

"Even if you call it an attack, all she intended was to fire a flash of blinding magic. It wasn't on a level where it could have caused blindness or impairment."

Naruto's eyes widened at that. And he wasn't the only one who was surprised. Again, there was a collective intake of breath.

"First-year, your CAD?" Watanabe demanded.

"Yes!"

CADs didn't keep an open record of which spells were used, but because the spell was interrupted midway and wasn't completed, it was possible to see which spell had been used from the error message that was blinking on the screen.

"Oh? I'm impressed," Watanabe said in admiration. "It seems that you're somehow able to read Activation Sequences before it's deployed."

"I'm no good at the practical portion of magic, but I'm confident in my analytical abilities."

Except…the ability to read magic before they occurred went beyond the level of analysis. That was almost on the level of precognition._ That ability is just broken…_

And judging by the small gasp the Public Morals Committee chief let out when Tatsuya gave her his name, he had apparently caught the attention of others on campus for other reasons as well.

"I'll remember that name," Watanabe promised.

Seriously, just who the hell was Shiba Tatsuya?

* * *

><p>Naruto had to once again endure the "introduction" ritual with Saijou Leo, Mitsui Honoka, and Kitayama Shizuku. And he witnessed another flag go up, this time for the Mitsui Honoka route in the romance game revolving around Tatsuya. This one wasn't so strange because Tatsuya had actually stuck his neck out for the girl, but it was unusual how people seemed to gravitate towards the completely emotionless Tatsuya.<p>

The Pervy Sage would probably say something like "girls gravitate towards the dark and mysterious" and curse Tatsuya for his luck with girls.

Naruto, however, wasn't envious by any means. One look at Miyuki was enough to make him realize that girls were often more trouble than they were worth. After Honoka gushed about how wonderful Tatsuya was, Miyuki had made sure that she spent every moment of the social time as close to Tatsuya as possible.

They had wanted to socialize, but Naruto was mentally tired of being around people at this point and excused himself to go home. A small part of his mind noted that Shikamaru excused himself as well.

And so, Naruto found himself walking home in the dark and reflecting on his first day of classes. All in all, he figured he acted like a typical high school student. He didn't pay attention in class, mouthed off at a teacher, and then (almost) got into a schoolyard fight. That was enough to deflect any attention from potential spies, right?

His eyes widened and he instantly flipped backwards into the air to avoid the shuriken that flew towards him.

_Great…I spoke too soon. I wonder…maybe this is Shikamaru. He left at the same time as I did. He could have doubled around a corner and followed me here…crap, I should have at least figured out what his pushion signature felt like in the last two days…_

"Look who we have here," an unfamiliar voice taunted. "I was on a covert operation and I just so happened to run into the most wanted person in Konoha. What amazing luck!"

Naruto supposed that was both good news and bad news. It wasn't Shikamaru, but it was definitely someone from Konoha. Was it possible that Shikamaru alerted another operative this quickly after seeing Naruto's little show of killing intent at school?

Once again, Naruto found himself cursing the Pervy Sage. It was only natural that Konoha try to take back their ancestral land. The Pervy Sage should have known that Japan would be teeming with covert operatives from Konoha. Naruto's appearance had changed quite a bit in the last seven years, but computer technology made it easy to predict how a person's face structure would change with puberty and aging. It was no wonder that he was quickly recognized by a Konoha shinobi.

"Konoha? What's Konoha?" Naruto asked in "confusion." "I have no idea what you're talking about!"

Naruto had no intention on letting this operative leave alive, even if the operative suddenly decided he made a mistake. Naruto's act of confusion was purely an effort to gather more information about his situation.

Whoever the voice belonged to wasn't fooled. "There were reports that you were hiding in the USNA, but it appears that they were wrong! I can finally get my promotion to jounin once I bring you in."

Oh? So it was either a chuunin or a special jounin. Naruto was betting on the former. Special jounin saw themselves as a type of jounin and would have said the promotion would be to _full_ jounin. Also, there was no way a special jounin would stand around to taunt an opponent before a fight.

"Mizuki, you bastard! Don't try to take all the credit for yourself. I was the one who recognized him first!"

_Mizuki?_

Naruto shook his head. This wasn't the time to think about the strange coincidence of one of the Konoha shinobi having the same name as the shy girl from Class 1E.

The knowledge that there were others nearby forced Naruto to activate his unique technique to sense the souls of people, or in magic terms, pushion information bodies. The leading theory was that souls were collections of highly ethereal pushions that were so thin that they couldn't be detected by even the most sensitive pushion sensors. Those pushion information bodies would interact with the physical body to make it move and in the case of magicians, use psions signals to operate the magic calculation area to construct Magic Sequences.

Naruto's Spirit Eye was somewhat like Mizuki's ailment of oversensitivity to pushion emissions, except that the Spirit Eye allowed the detection of pushion entities themselves instead of just the emissions.

Of course, that meant that Naruto could detect any living person within a certain radius and, if he focused enough, get a sense of his or her emotional state.

Naruto focused.

Seven signals in the immediate area. There were three of the signals seemed to be a bit further out and didn't seem to have direct hostility—at least for the moment—but that still left four.

A full team of Konoha shinobi, led by that Mizuki operative, who was most likely a chuunin.

_I'm facing four chuunin-caliber operatives at the most. That's not a problem, but I need to make sure no one escapes so that information about me doesn't get back to Konoha._

Luckily, this was an uninhabited area in the suburbs without the magic sensors and tracers located in the cities. It was probably the reason why the assassin chose to attack him, but the situation worked infinitely more in Naruto's favor.

Naruto leapt forward towards where the enemies were hiding and activated his innate magic to clone eight copies of one of his weapon-integrated CADs into his hands.

It would have been great if his Spirit Eye helped him aim within the Information Dimension. Spirit Eye was highly accurate, but still imprecise with locations, making it only use for determining the general location of people nearby and helping him avoid in-battle ambushes.

Naruto still needed to manually adjust the coordinates to aim his magic, which was a pain when dealing with agile shinobi and more so in a situation where he was trying not to cause widespread damage at the same time. The only buildings nearby where small shops and empty strip malls, but that didn't mean that he could just go wild and recklessly use multiple lethal A-rank spells that would draw attention from the authorities later on or some of his signature spells, like the Rasengan, that were easy to distinguish.

_The more common spells then…_

To begin, Naruto immediately threw the eight cloned knife-integrated CADs and used the single-process Movement-Type Magic programmed on the CAD to guide their movements towards the general direction where he could sense the pushion signals were coming from.

_Clang! Clang! Claclaclang! Clang!_

"Oh? Not bad, demon kid." Naruto grit his teeth at the name that brought him painful memories. "But you're not going to beat me at weapons-related skills."

Talking was useless in battle so Naruto didn't bother responding to the amateur who just made himself easier to find by talking.

Concentrating on replicating the Eidos signature of one of the CADs that was holstered on his thigh, Naruto cloned the general purpose CAD into his hand and raised a hand as a barrier activated in time to block the large windmill shuriken and dozens of other shuriken that the enemies threw. That final exchange and the activation of a thought barrier—which prevented him from leaving and from anyone recognizing what was going on inside—confirmed it.

While they _were _amateurs, his opponents had been chatting with him to buy time so they could prepare a powerful ancient magic spell. Naruto activated Speed-Type Magic to double his speed and appeared in front of the first opponent whose internal organs then burst apart from the multiple high frequency sound waves Naruto fired into his body at point-blank range.

"Maki!" one of the operatives cried from a few dozen meters away. "Damn it, is Mizuki still not ready yet?"

Naruto dodged the small lightning bolt and leapt in air, mentally aiming at the second and third opponents who were hiding in a corner. This time he didn't even bother getting close. Naruto tapped several different numbers into his CAD and activated Activation Sequences: Dispersion-Type, Movement-Type, and Speed-Type Magic. A multi-process Dispersion-Type Magic to separate the individual air molecules in the air, creating a pressure gradient, Movement-Type Magic to control the movement of specific air molecules, and then Speed-Type Magic to rapidly increase the speed of those air molecules.

A focused gale blasted through the area.

Naruto frowned as he landed. One of the pushion signals winked out, signaling that he died, but the other signal kept moving. _Well, I guess that's what happens when you cast spells blindly. _Naruto thought sullenly.

Naruto swerved to avoid a dark tiger-shaped familiar from biting off his head. He didn't have much more time to think as a punch flew towards his head. He blocked with his left hand and the cloned CAD in that hand shattered from the force.

_Body Enhancement Magic._ Naruto realized. The ancient magic Body Enhancement was more or less Konoha's version of Reinforcement Magic.

Naruto instantly cloned one of his knife-integrated CADs, the one with Reinforcement Magic programmed on it, and blocked with the flat when another fist came towards him, before cloning the same knife-integrated CAD into his other hand and slashing at his enemy.

Reinforcement Magic shattered Body Enhancement Magic. It certainly helped that Naruto had greater interference strength, giving his spells a stronger effect.

"Arg!" Naruto followed up with a knee to the man's gut.

Naruto felt the beginnings of a magic spell and responded by extending a field of Zone Interference. Immediately, the magic fizzled out. _Too bad…I guess that spell just wasn't strong enough. _Naruto followed that up by smashing his reinforced knives through the man's skull. _Three opponents down. Only one more left, unless those three stationed outside this thought barrier attack as soon as this barrier goes down._

The thought barrier prevented any interaction with the outside world so Naruto couldn't even sense the other three signals that he felt early in the battle.

Naruto waited patiently as he tracked the moving pushion signal about fifty meters away. It was likely the person preparing a heavy hitting attack of some sort.

He immediately felt the technique activate. Dozens of strange dark and shadowy familiars popped out around him, some in the forms of beasts and others in the forms of puppets. There were even some illusions stuck in with the solid ones.

Naruto raised his hand to activate the Oscillation-Type Magic, Sonic Wave. It was the magic he used earlier to kill the first shinobi. Naruto greatly lowered the power and adjusted the setting so they would only blast through the familiars and not damage the asphalt or the brick walls.

He groaned when two more appeared for every one he killed. And the distance signal showed that the final operative wasn't getting in close. This Mizuki operative was simply trying to drag things out and hoping for a miracle. Annoyed, Naruto ran up the walls of one of the buildings and leapt high into the air to avoid the pesky familiars. _To hell with minimizing collateral damage, I don't have any "soft" long distance magic that I can snipe with. And I'm tired of waiting. _In the three seconds he was in the air, Naruto finished sixteen Activation Sequences, all for Convergence-Type Magic, Air Bullet.

Sixteen condensed bullets of air rained down near where the final Konoha magician was moving about. The area was instantly filled with explosions.

* * *

><p>"The cleanup was disgusting, Naruto," Jiraiya said. "Why are you always so messy when you fight? Use your Vacuum Sphere or something. Seriously…I can't believe you took a spell designed to knock people out and converted it into something that causes someone's internal organs to burst. And not to mention what was left of the guy you peppered with Air Bullet. His body was in over fifty different pieces."<p>

It had been a long time since the last assassination or capture attempt on Naruto and it appeared that the brat had gotten a bit too trigger-happy during that time.

"You try fighting an entire team of shinobi by yourself and see how far you get trying to leave absolutely no evidence behind," the boy growled. "And Vacuum Sphere, as it is, is unreliable against trained shinobi who can hold their breath for a while. When affecting such a large area, I can only reduce the amount of air in that area up to a certain point. Because it's not a true vacuum, all anyone would need to do is hold his or her breath and use that time to move out of the affected area. The scale of my magic is huge, but even I can't create an area of effect spell that covers hundreds of meters, which would be the distance any seasoned shinobi can travel before they run out of breath."

"Then what about a far less violent Convergence-Type Magic to manipulate gas particles in the air. Surely, you could have choked them with carbon dioxide instead of leaving over a dozen small craters on the street. And not to mention, you lost a valuable source of information."

"Too hard to aim when I can't see my opponent. Air Bullet explodes so I don't need to worry about precise aiming. And seriously, you're telling me to capture a Konoha shinobi _alive_? What could I possibly ask them? 'Oh why are you after me?' Seriously?" Naruto rolled his eyes. "It's better to kill them quickly so they can't report back that I'm in Japan again."

Jiraiya sighed. Even after all these years, Naruto was far to short-sighed. Jiraiya supposed that he couldn't expect too much insight from a fifteen-year-old kid, especially one who has felt cornered for most of his life. Maybe he was being too demanding on the boy.

He groaned. "Ugh…never mind…I'll deal with the fallout later. I'll probably have to go to that street in a bit and set up a gas explosion or something and work things out with the government officials afterwards. You're seriously lucky that I'm in Japan right now."

The cops would be swarming all over the area within a matter of hours. Even though Naruto's psion wave signature had been forged and wouldn't match any of the ones in the government registry, it wouldn't take much to find out that Naruto had been involved if the government decided to investigate deeply. Fortunately, Jiraiya had the connections to bury this little incident.

"So anyway, _Ero-sennin_," Naruto said viciously, "let's move onto the next topic. You conveniently 'forgot' to mention that there are three other students at First High School who are affiliated with Konoha."

Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji had detected several Konoha shinobi attacking Naruto and rushed to help, only to be blocked off by the thought barrier. According to their report, they had been attempting to break it using Ino's brand of mental magic, but the barrier broke down on its own in four minutes and twenty-three seconds.

Naruto, who had been understandably suspicious, was gearing up for a fight when Jiraiya had arrived in time to stop him. Jiraiya had assured Naruto that the three kids were his allies, but Naruto didn't appear to be too happy.

Jiraiya sent the three kids home for the night and told them that he would talk with Naruto first before talking with all of them as a group.

"_Formerly _affiliated," Jiraiya replied, emphasizing the first word.

"…" Naruto's glare didn't disappear. Jiraiya chuckled as the boy began to leak quite a bit of killing intent. That scary look was just like his mother's.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry. That was my bad," Jiraiya said to his godson in a placating tone.

Naruto didn't let him off the hook with just that. "You clearly told the three of them and even had the gall to give the teachers interesting factoids about my background and personality, but you conveniently 'forgot' to tell me that there would be three people I could potentially recognize attending my school."

Of course. That was completely intentional on Jiraiya's part. It was an opportunity to assess the mental state of his godson.

"Naruto, what was the first thing that went through you mind when you saw Shikamaru?"

The blonde snorted. "Isn't it obvious? I thought about whether I should kill him and if I could get away with it."

_Kid…that was cold… _There had been no hesitation whatsoever. Naruto was used to killing. While Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji looked a bit sick after seeing the aftermath of Naruto's battle with the Konoha squad—there was blood and gore everywhere—aside from looking a bit annoyed, Naruto more or less looked as if he had just a nice stroll in the park.

His increasingly callous attitude towards life, even if it was enemy life, was becoming somewhat of a problem.

"That's exactly why I didn't tell you."

"How does that make any sense?! If you had told me, I wouldn't have freaked out!"

Jiraiya sighed. "I don't disagree with your point, but do you not see what the greater problem is here? Whenever you have a problem, the first, second, and third thing you think of is killing. Honestly, I didn't think it was _this _bad though."

The boy gaped at him. "I'm back in Japan…you _don't _expect me to have that kind of reaction?"

"Naruto, Konoha's eventually going to find out you're here no matter what precautions you take. It's only a matter of time."

"But—"

Jiraiya raised a hand up to silence the boy. Naruto would get an explanation, but Jiraiya had to make his point. "It's good to be careful, but if you had killed Shikamaru in your misguided paranoia, you'd be short one ally right now. Actually, you'd be down three allies and up two enemies because Chouji and Ino would be out for your blood."

Naruto scoffed and the expression on his face grew ice cold. "Actually, in that case, it'd be three more corpses."

Jiraiya palmed his forehead in frustration. "Ugh…that aside…let this be another lesson to you: you absolutely suck at controlling your own emotions, even in public."

"That's bull—"

"Just shut up and listen, brat. One of the reasons I didn't tell you about those three because I wanted you to get to know them organically instead of me forcing it upon you. Shikamaru was supposed to introduce himself to you as a friend. He _didn't _when he felt your killing intent spike the moment you recognized him yesterday. That's why Ino and Chouji stayed clear of you of the last two days. Then, I was supposed to introduce the three of them to you today but I walk in to see you coldly glaring at them and getting to reap their souls like some sort of Shinigami. That's why we're having this talk now. Seriously kid, you need to learn how to _wait _before you act."

"When it comes to enemies, kill first, then ask questions later. It's what kept me alive. And besides, Shikamaru's alive, isn't he?"

Jiraiya snorted. "Only after you managed to frighten him out of his mind."

"Well, yeah? You frightened the shit out of me by having me return to Konoha's backyard!"

"Then learn how to avoid attention properly, you little shit," Jiraiya snapped, finally losing his temper. "Let's look at your other failures as well. I mean…seriously…rank _one _in the practical? And you tried to remedy that by going completely in the opposite direction for the written portion? You dumbass! That only made people even more curious about you. I don't even want to talk about the phone call I received after hearing about your abnormal scores."

Naruto looked a bit sheepish at that. "Ah…about that…"

Jiraiya sneered. "Yeah, about that? Be glad that Konoha doesn't investigate something as insignificant as entrance exam scores for a magic high school. And let's look at your track record for the last thirty-six hours. One, you almost killed Shikamaru without cause. Two, you unnecessarily caused a scene in one of your classes because of your ego—don't ask me how I know. Three, you almost got into a fight just because one of your classmates was being an idiot and you wanted to put him in his place—Shikamaru told me that one. Four, you destroyed half a block simply because it was more convenient. Naruto, you claim that you're trying to stay under the radar, but your actions reflect anything but."

"I didn't go nuts when I found that Shiho used to be from Konoha," Naruto grumbled.

"Congratulations," Jiraiya replied sarcastically. "That would one in five or six situations you didn't make yourself look like a complete dumbass…except…Shiho told me that you paralyzed her with killing intent as well." Jiraiya shook his head in irritation. "As your godfather, I'm so proud to see you treat your friends like trash. Your parents would be just as proud."

Jiraiya almost winced when he saw Naruto recoil back as if he had been struck on the face. It was a low blow, but one that needed to be done. It was true that all of this could have been avoided if he had informed the boy previously, but Jiraiya wanted Naruto to be able to make sound judgments even in the heat of the moment.

After all, Jiraiya wasn't going to be around forever to provide Naruto with detailed information about the people around him.

There was a long and awkward silence following that.

"This is why I had you attending school back in the USNA and here in Japan now. Learn the difference between being on guard and overreacting. Learn what is proper and appropriate for a situation. Learn what it means to be human. Seriously, Naruto…I know you've been hurt in the past, but really…learn how to _trust _someone for once. Otherwise, you'll always be stuck in the past."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

1. This chapter was characterized by scenes from the light novel with some minor alterations to include Naruto and to cover some plot holes along with a few new scenes. The scene with Mari simply accepting Tatsuya's explanation that he could "see" Activation Sequences comes to mind.

In any case, this hybrid mix of old scenes/new scenes will continue for some time as all the major characters are introduced will shift to mostly (but still not all) new scenes. But for the immediate future, I don't really foresee the story diverging very much from canon until the end of the Enrollment Arc.

2. Remember that each scene is written from the perspective of the "main" character for that scene. Each character refers to other characters differently. For the most part, Naruto will use first names for anyone he's had a friendly conversation with given his USNA background. Somehow like Tatsuya, however, will refer to upperclassmen by their last names (along with a sempai attached) or titles.

3. Congrats to the people who guessed the pairing. Yes, it's Naruto x Lina. Lina wasn't a registered character under the _Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei_ category until a few days ago, so I couldn't list her as a main character in the summary. That problem is now fixed.

Contrary to what I assume is popular thought, I didn't choose her because she's a strategic-class magician or because she's supposed to be the second prettiest girl introduced in the light novel after Miyuki. The choice was purely based on personality. I never really had a chance to write in the perspective of a tsundere character and wanted to try it out. I think it'll be rather fun.

4. Question - How popular is the first Nine Schools Competition? For the purposes of this story, the competition isn't really all that big of a deal. I was thinking of removing the Nine Schools Competition Arc completely and replacing it with a different arc altogether, but if people enjoyed reading about the events, I can work that into the story just as easily.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I don't own _Naruto_ or _Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei_.

* * *

><p>"Tatsuya-kun. Are you acquainted with the president?" Mizuki asked.<p>

"We met for the first time before the entrance ceremony. So, I suppose I would have to answer yes."

"It certainly didn't look like a first meeting," Erika chimed in.

"I know, right? It's as if she intentionally sought you out," Leo added. "I saw that wink she gave you when Watanabe-sempai was tearing into us."

Tatsuya had enough confidence in his prodigious memory to say that the yesterday was definitely the first time he met Saegusa Mayumi. However, just as Leo and Erika said, that approach did not seem like a first acquaintance.

Tatsuya sought to come up with an excuse. "It's probably because of Miyuki," he finally said, referring to Miyuki's status as the freshman representative.

"Onii-sama," Miyuki said in a reproachful tone, "she specifically called you by your first name."

The temperature in the area dropped a bit and Tatsuya rapidly thought of possible ways to placate Miyuki.

"Well," Erika said thoughtfully, "She did also refer to Naruto-kun by his first name on the first day of school at school, so maybe it's not just Tatsuya."

Tatsuya didn't believe in any gods, but he was grateful for the change in topic.

"Hm? Naruto? That Class 1A student from yesterday?" Leo asked with a hearty chuckle. "The one who called out Morisaki in front of everyone."

"Ah, yeah. When it comes to words, that guy has no filter whatsoever," Erika chortled. "I still remember the look on Morisaki's face at the mention of 'Quick Draw.' Haha! I can never think about word in the same way. And 'Quick Shot Morisaki!' Hahaha, that'll never get old!" The expression on Erika's face turned sly. "Eh, Miyuki. Were you impressed that Naruto-kun came to your defense? I know he accused Morisaki of doing it, but he might be going after you, too! Not that it's a bad thing. Naruto-kun's pretty good-looking, you know…"

"I do wish Uzumaki-san had been…wiser about his choice of words, I'm grateful that Uzumaki-san spoke up. I think his heart is in the right place." Tatsuya did not miss the fact that Miyuki made no comment about the last half of Erika's comments.

Neither did Erika, apparently. "Oh? Rejection before the confession even comes? Poor Naruto-kun. Well…I might just go after him myself then…"

They all gaped at that. Even Tatsuya threw her a look.

"What?" Erika gave them a teasing smile. "Calm down, I'm joking."

"So you like the brash and wild type then?" Leo taunted. "And after you accused me of being the same yesterday, too."

"No," she scoffed with a playful-but-not-quite-playful swipe at Leo's head. "I like the capable type…which you most certainly aren't. Maybe an amateur like you didn't notice, but that standoff yesterday was entirely in Naruto-kun's favor. If Morisaki pulled the trigger, he'd be no more than a bloody smear on the ground. It's actually the reason I intervened."

Tatsuya had to agree. The intense killing intent yesterday was a clear indication that the blond boy was no regular student. It had been strong enough to keep most of the hostile students nervous and at bay.

Still, for Erika to recognize that from just the killing intent meant that she was by no means a normal student herself. With that in mind, her casual remark about "going after Naruto" could be inferred as Erika wanting to keep an eye on the blonde.

"Eh?" Mizuki asked in shock. "Really?"

"Really," Erika said firmly, completely serious now. "It's hard for me to assess his magic power when he didn't use any of it, but physically, he's strong. And he's used to combat."

Leo furrowed his brow at that. "Speaking of Uzumaki, where is he? Shikamaru as well…I had hope to talk with them some more today…"

Tatsuya thought that it was a bit much to be worrying about any person who wasn't currently present. If they started worrying about Naruto and Shikamaru, then they would have to worry about Honoka and Shizuku as well. And it was already unusual that their group was five strong.

"Tatsuya-kun~!"

Tatsuya wondered if he would be feeling a sense of dread had he been a normal person. He recognized the voice as belonging to Saegusa Mayumi, the person who has indirectly caused so much trouble for him, both the first day of school and this morning.

Tatsuya turned around.

"Tatsuya-kun, good morning~! And Miyuki-san as well, good morning."

Tatsuya noted that the greeting directed towards him was far more casual than the one directed towards Miyuki. He supposed it was her right as a third-year and the Student Council president.

Despite her casual tone, it was better to observe proper protocol, just to be on the safe side. "Good morning, President." Next to him, Miyuki also bowed respectfully and the other three offered polite, albeit slightly awed, greetings. Considering the president's status as a Saegusa and her legendary feats at the Nine Schools Competition, it was only natural to have such a reaction.

"Are you alone, President?"

That was obvious with a simple glance, but such a question was necessary as a subtle invitation to walk together to school.

"Hm. There isn't really anyone that walks with me to school in the morning." A confirmation to the obvious query and an acceptance to the subtle invitation. Tatsuya felt that Saegusa-sempai was quite personable indeed for not having any qualms about walking with five underclassmen she barely knew. "I would like to speak with Miyuki-san about a few things as well so…may I walk with you to school?"

The comment directed towards Miyuki was spoken in an approachable tone, but was far different from the casual and cheerful tone just moment earlier. This was no longer the cheerful upperclassman, but rather the responsible president of the Student Council.

"It's fine with me, but…" Tatsuya followed Miyuki's gaze towards their three other friends who were slowly backing away.

"Oh, it's not like the topic is a secret. Or do you prefer to talk at a later time, Miyuki-san?" Mayumi gestured towards the slowly retreating Leo, Mizuki, and Erika.

Tatsuya decided to interrupt. "President," he said in what he considered an unhappy tone. His friends probably didn't mind, but he didn't want them to make space just so that the president can talk to them. "I feel as if your attitude towards one of us is a bit different. Or is that just my misinterpretation?"

"Eh? Is that the case~?"

Saegusa-sempai's words and tone immediately switched back to being casual, but the light blush on her face gave her away.

_So she is treating me differently. The question is…what for?_

"Is the subject you wish to speak about related to the Student Council?" Tatsuya felt a brief flicker of betrayal as Miyuki frantically changed the topic back to her. He had been planning on asking the president directly as to why she was treating him so differently.

Saegusa Mayumi seemed to look a bit relieved. "I meant to find an opportunity to speak with you in detail. Do you have any plans during lunch break?"

"I plan on eating in the cafeteria."

"With Tatsuya-kun?"

"No, Onii-sama and I are in different classes."

Tatsuya realized that she was no doubt thinking about the commotion that had happened yesterday.

The president showed that she was rather quick on the uptake. "Ah," she said in understanding. "There are quite a lot of students that care about these little things."

Tatsuya slightly glanced to his side and noticed the sour looks on Mizuki's, Erika's, and Leo's faces.

"In that case, why not join me in the Student Council room for lunch? The room even has an automatic meal dispenser." Tatsuya was rather surprised that the Student Council room had something that was normally seen in airline terminals and long-distance trains. Not only was it expensive, but it also seemed a bit excessive. "Tatsuya-kun can come along as well~"

The last part was said in a sing-song voice. The president was no doubt trying to bribe Miyuki. Tatsuya was convinced that the look on Saegusa-sempai's face had a mischievous quality for a moment before it returned to being her normal bright expression.

Tatsuya felt the beginnings of a headache. If he showed up in the Student Council room, he was bound to run into the executive he met on the first day. From the process of elimination, it was clear that the upperclassman boy was the vice-president.

He voiced his thoughts on the matter.

"The vice-president?" the president asked in confusion. "Oh! You mean Hanzou-kun. Don't worry. Hanzou-kun will be in the clubroom for lunch." Saegusa-sempai turned to everyone around them. "Everyone else can come as well. After all, letting everyone know just what the Student Council does is one of our duties as well."

As fate would have it, everyone came up with some sort of excuse to refuse and Tatsuya was left with the daunting task of confronting Saegusa Mayumi alone at lunch. Well…there was Miyuki, but given her Course 1 status and soon-to-be Student Council member status, she didn't count.

Tatsuya sighed. Why him?

* * *

><p>"Uzumaki-kun, a word, please."<p>

Naruto stopped to look at the counselor. Apparently she was the counselor for Class 1A and Class 1E. Yesterday, she had introduced herself to Class 1E and today, she had introduced herself to Class 1A.

"Ono-sensei?" Naruto asked as the rest of the students filed out of homeroom to get to the next class. There were a few minutes in between classes so Naruto wasn't in any danger of being late.

"Uzumaki-kun, did you know that you're rather infamous among the teachers? And by the third day of school, too. Quite impressive."

The teacher gave him a demure smile.

Naruto almost scoffed at the teacher's approach. As if he would fall for that. Being a healthy teenaged boy, he had to admit that the teacher was quite attractive, but he wasn't really one to care too much about things like physical beauty. Survival had been and was more important.

He decided to give her a sheepish look mixed with some awkwardness. He had no idea why she was talking to him, but ultimately, it would be best if she thought she had him ensnared with her appearance.

"You're talking about the incident with Satou-sensei yesterday, right?"

"Well, it isn't _just _that. Many of the teachers were quite stunned by the um…discrepancy in your scores."

His mood instantly plummeted after hearing that. It reminded him of the conversation he had with the Pervy Sage yesterday night.

_That goddamn asshole. _

The conversation had ended in a huge shouting match and Naruto had come close to launching spells at his bastard of a godfather when his parents' names were mentioned. Naruto had held his hand only because he felt that reacting would serve to prove the Pervy Sage right.

_But then again, that's probably why he was willing to go for such a cheap shot. _Naruto thought cynically. For all his faults, the wily shinobi understood human psychology far better than most. People like Danzo were considered dangerous because they were _openly _manipulative, but Naruto felt that someone like the Pervy Sage who messed with people's minds while seemingly playing the fool were far more dangerous.

Yep. The Pervy Sage was definitely an insensitive and conniving bastard. But then again, that was a big reason why Naruto was alive and so strong today. Naruto figured he had to take the good with the bad.

As for the contents of yesterday's conversation…Naruto was more than willing to admit his mistakes. Maybe Naruto overreacted in an idiotic way by trying to lower his overall score. Maybe Naruto had panicked after hearing Shiho reveal information she shouldn't have known and after recognizing someone at school.

But trust? Naruto snorted. Trust wasn't freely given. It was earned. And blind trust got people killed.

Naruto shook those thoughts out of his head. Now wasn't the time for them.

He looked back at Ono-sensei with an embarrassed smile. "I'm not really good at studying. I learn things by doing. You know how people say there are," Naruto thought for a bit, "visual learners, auditory learners…I guess that you can call me…um…a tactile learner. So I don't do well on things like written exams."

It was a lame excuse, but an honest one for the most part.

"I suppose that would explain some things. Do you want to talk about it?"

It was almost as if the teacher knew he was in a bad mood. Naruto wondered if the teacher was just naturally inquisitive or was just trying to do her job as a counselor.

"Not particularly. I'm comfortable with who I am." Naruto gave her a cheeky smile. "I just need to remind myself that even if I'm not so good in certain areas, I'm awesome in others."

"That's a healthy mindset to have. If only some of our other students thought the same way…" Ono-sensei trailed off wistfully, no doubt thinking of the Course 2 students she was in charge of.

"Well, it probably helps that I'm in a field where practical application matters more than theory," Naruto added helpfully.

"Perhaps."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. That last answer seemed to have a touch of bitterness in it. Maybe the woman had been the Course 2 equivalent of wherever she went to school. She was certainly young enough to have recently attended one of the different magic high schools in Japan.

"Um…Ono-sensei, if there's nothing else…I should be getting to my next class." He still had plenty of time, but Naruto didn't want rumors spreading that he was in some sort of illicit relationship with a young teacher who looked as though she recently graduated high school.

"Ah, that's right," the teacher said, giving him an embarrassed smile. "I came to ask you if you want to join the Public Morals Committee."

"No, thanks." The response was immediate. It was customary for Japanese high school students to join some sort of club or committee, but Naruto had no desire to waste any more time at school than was needed. He'd much rather use that time training. "I'm sure you can find another person."

The teacher frowned. "That's true, but the person the staff was initially looking to recommend was the one who caused that scene after school."

"Quick…I mean…Morisaki Shun?"

The teacher looked rather amused at his slip-up. Apparently, she was informed of the insults that had been hurled at Morisaki Shun.

"Yes. Each year, the staff is able to recommend a freshman to the Public Morals Committee. There are often complaints from the chiefs of the committee about the staff-recommended students about philosophical differences. Given that the staff don't interact with the students as much, it's only natural that staff-recommended students don't fit in with the rest of the committee."

"How would I be different? And I'm not sure if you've heard or not, but I was involved in the incident yesterday as well. For all you know, I could be a trouble-maker, too."

Naruto almost took a step back when Ono-sensei gave him a sly smile. "Third-year Watanabi Mari-san is the chief this year. Since she's in Class 3A, she's also one of my counselees as well, so I know what she's looking for in her committee members. She favors students who aren't so blinded with a sense of superiority."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "I've had plenty of people tell me I'm full of myself." _As recently as yesterday evening, as a matter of fact._

"Oh?" The teacher laughed at his admission. "But at least you don't hold that over anyone else. Judging from your response yesterday, you seem to have an understanding that all people, no matter what their background and skill, should be respected."

There was nothing wrong about what she said, but Naruto still needed an excuse to refuse. "Is it really proper to unilaterally decide that I should be the staff selection to the spot?"

"Considering your scores on the practical exam, I doubt that hardly any of the teachers would have an issue. After all, the Public Morals Committee focuses far more on the practical side of magic."

So that was a no-go as well. He'd have to try the direct approach now. "Well…I'm sorry, but I'll have to refuse."

"Why? It's not so time consuming that you can't join another club."

Naruto hesitated. "I wasn't planning on joining one." Naruto winced when Ono-sensei raised an eyebrow at that. _Oops, wrong answer._

Luckily, the counselor herself came to the rescue. "Ah, that's right. Being from the USNA, you wouldn't know. In Japan, it customary for most students to join some sort of club or committee."

"Is it required though?" Naruto asked, thinking quickly on his feet. "I mean…my written exam scores were really low. I was hoping to go to the library to study. I'm a bit slower than the other students so I'll need the extra time."

"Your scores weren't _that _low. They were still easily in the top half of admitted students. By law, we're not able to make you join a club or committee, but it's definitely frowned upon." The counselor folded her arms. "If the prestige isn't enough, you should know that there are incentives to joining the Public Morals Committee."

"Incentives?"

"Well, this is a long ways away, but if you manage to become chief, you'll be one of the few to receive a recommendation from the school for a spot at the National Magic University. It would be a guaranteed acceptance and you won't have to take the college entrance exams. Don't you think that would be a better investment of your time than studying when you yourself learn better from _doing _and not studying?"

"Well…" He couldn't say that he had absolutely no plan to go to college in Japan. Naruto mentally cursed as he was slowly pinned into a corner. The teacher had used his own words against him.

"There are other benefits, too. The Public Morals Committee members are allowed to carry their CADs on campus. There are strict regulations regarding their use, of course, but you'll be able to use and practice magic more freely on campus."

That last bit singlehandedly tipped the scale. There would no more worrying about the possibility of getting caught with his CADs and getting expelled. Still, he couldn't accept this too eagerly lest he raise even more suspicion.

"You're not going to let me refuse, are you?"

The teacher just smiled at that. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Uzumaki-kun. I already told you that I am not allowed to force you to do anything."

"But you will badger me about it until I accept." The smile on the teacher's face grew wider. Naruto made a show of sighing in resignation. "Alright, I'll do it."

"Great! Thank you. I'll contact the chief of the Public Morals Committee. I daresay that Watanabe-san may contact you as soon as tomorrow." Naruto turned to leave homeroom. "And Naruto?" Naruto stopped. "If you ever want to talk, stop by my office."

* * *

><p>Jiraiya didn't jump in surprise as he felt a presence appear near him. This was an expected visit. He had taken an early morning flight out of Japan to Beijing and had been waiting to meet his contact.<p>

"It's been three years since we last met face-to-face, hasn't it?" he said smoothly, without turning around. "Time sure flies."

"It certainly has felt much shorter than that, Jiraiya-sama." There was a pause. "There isn't much time so I request that we conclude our business as quickly as possible. I am on my way back from a mission and have to report back as soon as possible."

They were in a wooded area away from society, but it was still out in the open. Not to mention, it was in broad daylight. It was hardly the most secure of locations or of times.

"Sage" Jiraiya took a deep breath. "Very well then, Kakashi. I need an update on the latest developments regarding Konoha. Even with access to Hliðskjálf, there's only so much I can find out when Konoha has an entirely separate internal network from the rest of the world."

Hliðskjálf was the backdoor entrance to Echelon III, the USNA information interception system that collected almost all the electronic information in the world. Hliðskjálf allowed users to directly access the data—even encrypted data—stored within Echelon III. The users were collective known as the Seven Sages and heavily sought after by the intelligence community in the USNA who, aside from the Seven Sages, were the only ones who knew about the existence of Hliðskjálf.

Of course, there were limits to the information gathering capabilities of Echelon III and consequently, Hliðskjálf's ability to provide that information to the Sages. One such limit was that it could not gather information that was not electronically transmitted.

There was a sharp intake of breath from the gray-haired elite shinobi. "Jiraiya-sama, does that mean preparations are already complete?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "Unfortunately, the CIA refuses to acknowledge Konoha as a significant threat to the USNA's national security. To them, Konoha is just a problem for the East. They decided to back away completely."

"If they don't change that mentality quickly, then they'll have a fourth world war on their hands," Kakashi said in an off-hand voice.

Jiraiya would have gaped at the revelation had he not known Danzo's personality. It wasn't a matter of _if _World War IV would start, but rather _when _with Danzo in charge. The man believed that fighting was the only solution to any and every problem. World hunger? Start a war to reduce the population. Population crisis. _Still _start a war and then encourage men to rape civilian women in occupied territory to boost population.

"Details?" Jiraiya asked sharply. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

Jiraiya took the memory drive that Kakashi offered him. "Here's everything I know. But given my background, Danzo doesn't trust me, so there is very little I know beyond what the rank-and-file know. It took quite a bit of effort to figure out just what is going on. But I have reason to believe that Konoha is leveraging its influence here to coax the Great Asian Alliance to go to war with Japan. Once that happens, both the New Soviet Union and the USNA would have to get involved. I believe that operatives have infiltrated both countries as well."

It was commonly known by those in the intelligence community that Konoha had subverted the GAA's government at all but the highest levels. Moreover, considering that the GAA envied and coveted Japan's technical expertise in magic, it probably wouldn't be too difficult to convince the GAA to go to war with Japan.

"What's the ultimate goal?"

"I presume it is to reduce the number of magicians in the world."

Jiraiya nodded. It made sense from what Jiraiya knew of Danzo. The warmonger had always believed that magic power should exclusively belong to Konoha. If a huge worldwide war broke out, magicians, who were still considered weapons by virtually every country, would be called to fight. Because those in Konoha had always thought of Japan as home, the last war dragged Konoha's magicians in on the side of Japan. But there was no love lost between Konoha and Japan now after Konoha was more or less forced out of Japan twelve years ago. Most shinobi considered that the ultimate betrayal from the Japanese government.

"Is there a timeframe?"

Kakashi frowned. "The plan is entering its final stages. I estimate a year or two at the most before war begins. As I already reported to you before, for the last five years, Danzo has been sending men into orphanages and small villages to kidnap children with any magic potential and has permanently hired hundreds of freelance magicians."

"Wasn't that to replenish forces after the coup d'etat five years ago?"

"That was our misunderstanding. I now believe it was to lay the groundwork for this war. I don't have exact numbers, but Konoha's combat forces probably stand around ten thousand now."

"That's almost equal to the number of combat magicians Japan has in its military."

"Yes. After all, there is a significantly larger population base here in the Great Asian Alliance to draw shinobi and magicians from. We're fortunate that most of Konoha's forces are at genin level. Otherwise, we'd be in the middle of war now."

Jiraiya fell silent for a few minutes. This was a much bleaker situation than he could have hoped for. He rarely had the opportunity to slip into the Great Asian Alliance and had even fewer means of getting into contact with the trustworthy resistance members in Konoha, so he had been mostly in the dark about what Konoha was planning.

"Is there anything else you can tell me?"

"Not much. The only thing of note is that there has been a sharp increase in number of operatives sent to the Japan in recent months."

Jiraiya crossed his arms. "Scouting? Espionage?"

Kakashi hesitated for a few seconds. "It's difficult to say, but most of the operatives have been low-level agents. Trusted agents, of course, but very low in terms of pure combat ability."

"A mission involving politics then," Jiraiya theorized. "Although I haven't seen any evidence of it, Konoha could be fomenting hatred for the GAA among the Japanese people. It's something I'll have to check into." Jiraiya mentally cursed as his mind recalled that Naruto had carelessly slaughtered the low-level agents yesterday evening. The kid was powerful, but he was a complete rookie in seeing the big picture and creating opportunities. Jiraiya sighed. There was no helping it now. "Well, this is a lot more than I had expected…we'll just have to adapt the best we can."

"It appears that way."

Jiraiya turned to leave. "Well, if that's all then…"

"Wait. Just one more thing. How is Minato-sensei's son doing?"

Jiraiya stopped walking and paused. If Kakashi only knew how loaded of a question that was…

He sighed. There was no avoiding it.

"Ah…Minato's son…I brought him to Japan a few weeks ago. I arranged for some of the exiled members to meet with him."

The response was immediate and the air grew tense. "Tell me where he lives. I demand to meet him."

"No." Jiraiya shook his head.

"With all due respect, Jiraiya-sama, I have a _duty _to meet him. He's the son of the man who I thought of as a father." There was a hint of anger in Kakashi's voice. "It's already bad enough that I wasn't able to help him at all in the last decade. There was nothing I could do while you stashed him away in the USNA, but if he's in Japan, I _can _go and meet him."

Jiraiya sighed, having expected this response. "It's best that you don't, Kakashi. As things stand right now, you rushing over to Japan to meet with him will only lead to your death."

"My death?"

Jiraiya grimaced. "Naruto's first and immediate response to meeting anyone from Konoha is to kill them. It's kill first and don't even ask questions later."

"Surely he wouldn't react poorly if you introduced me to him…"

"I will, but not anytime soon. I have to return to the USNA right after my business in the GAA is finished."

"You can send him a message." Kakashi's tone was both hostile and accusatory. "Not to mention that you said he's meeting up with those who were formerly affiliated with Konoha."

"I suppose I can send him a message," Jiraiya admitted. "But it still won't be enough. Naruto was already reacted poorly after meeting a _former _Konoha member and one who was his age. Imagine what would happen if he sees an _active _elite jounin." Until Naruto became a little less trigger-happy, hopefully through his interactions with the former Konoha shinobi, Jiraiya didn't think it was a good idea if anyone else affiliated with Konoha ran into Naruto. "He's more likely to think that any message I send him is a false message than to believe that there are people in Konoha resisting Danzo's rule."

"You haven't told him?" Kakashi asked incredulously. "Jiraiya-sama!"

"I have. _Many _times. But he believes that the shinobi in Konoha are either too weak or too afraid to do anything. Given how no one seemed to protest when he was slated to be executed for being _unwillingly _involved in the Jinchuuriki Project, I don't blame him too much even if I am unhappy about his attitude."

The Jinchuuriki Project was a series of secret and unethical experiments headed by Danzo and Orochimaru to create super shinobi who were far superior to modern magicians, ancient magicians, and martial artists in each of their respective fields of invocation speed & versatility, magic power and stealth, and physical combat. Of the three hundred children who subjects, only nine survived. When Hiruzen-sensei and the general public of Konoha had found out about it, they had been horrified. Hiruzen-sensei had immediately ordered all traces of the experiments to be destroyed. That meant that all nine surviving subjects were sentenced to death as well.

No one in Konoha made any motion to disagree.

Jiraiya didn't know how many of the nine survived. But Naruto at the least had somehow managed to escape—Jiraiya suspected that Hiruzen-sensei was somehow responsible—and survived on his own for almost a full year. Jiraiya had run into his godson while returning from an infiltration mission overseas that had taken almost five years to complete. Immediately recognizing the boy and after hearing the situation from the boy, Jiraiya had quickly moved to take the boy out of the country.

And he had never reported back since.

Despite the fact that Kakashi kept his face mostly expressionless, Jiraiya could tell that Kakashi was upset by how he clenched his fists. "I wasn't in the village during that time. And I was under the impression that Hiruzen-sama was taking care of his needs."

"I was in the same boat, so I'm not blaming you. I'm just asking you to understand where Naruto is coming from. We both suspect that it was Hiruzen-sensei who allowed Naruto to sneak out and live as an exile instead of being executed. But even knowing that, Naruto hates Hiruzen-sensei with a passion for not doing more. If he knows that you are part of Konoha, the only thing that'll register in his mind was that you did nothing to stop the fallout from the Jinchuuriki Project for all these years."

"Then when…"

"When Naruto settles down. I intentionally had him meeting up with some of the exiled members around his age so he can regain some of his humanity."

"That bad?"

Jiraiya didn't answer that and just turned around to leave. "There are also strategic reasons why you shouldn't meet him. Naruto is more or less affiliated with the exiled group now. And it's too risky for to have any sort of communication between the resistance group and the exiled group."

Jiraiya could tell that Kakashi didn't like that answer, but the masked ninja nodded. "Very well then."

Jiraiya called out as he walked away. "Kakashi, as for your last question…well…the kid's fine. He's suffering from unhealthy paranoia and distrust, but I have no doubt that he has the same charisma and bright cheeriness that drew people to him as Minato had. If the kid lets that part of him grow instead of letting his negativity hold him back, then I have no doubt that he'll become a great person."

* * *

><p>224 milliseconds. Spell on target. Moving block stable.<p>

Exercise cleared!

"This is really stupid." Naruto felt his eyes twitch in annoyance as his screen terminal, which was wirelessly connected to the machine in front of him, registered the completion of the assignment. There were even bonus stars next to the message for having excelled in the task.

He was in his first practical class of the year. Despite the more hands-on nature of the course, there were no teachers present to supervise.

It was unnecessary, after all. All they were doing was putting their hands on a machine and sending a block up and down a track.

The class activity and assessment method made him feel somewhat insulted.

Naruto _knew _he was amazing. He could shatter bricks with his bare hands, he could probably outrun the lower tier of the Olympians at any distance _without _magic, he spoke multiple languages, and last but definitely not least, he was one of the most capable combat magicians in the world.

And this machine was telling him that he was awesome as well.

But that was only because he could move a block up a small track. His combat ability wasn't important; only the moving block mattered. The knowledge he painstaking absorbed over the last decade was irrelevant; only the moving block mattered. His ability to simultaneously weave over a dozen spells together didn't count; only the moving block mattered.

Yes…all hail the damn block. Up and down it goes.

Naruto sighed. He was going crazy. Maybe he _should _visit Ono-sensei's office for some counseling…

Naruto looked at the block again with heavy distaste. Unfortunately, this was to be their main exercise for most of the first trimester.

For an entrance exam, the exercise made sense as it determined aptitude in magic. But why the hell was a square block moved by a single-process Speed-Type Magic being used as _practice_? At the very least, Naruto had been expecting a session where they were expected to combine at least two multi-process spells within each category of the eight different types of magic in the Four Great Systems. Or if single-process spells were absolutely necessary in the curriculum, couldn't the school have arranged for moving targets at the very least to help students train aiming properly in the Information Dimension? Over half the magicians took combat-related jobs—either through the military, police, or private security companies—and could use combat-related skills.

Naruto thought back on the attack from yesterday. Even he could certainly use more help with aiming in the Information Dimension. If only there was a way to connect better with the Information Dimension itself…

Some of the early modern magicians had claimed to have such an ability. Elemental Sight, it was called. Naruto would trade his Spirit Eye for Elemental Sight in a heartbeat. Instead of being able to read mental states and getting general locations of people, he'd be able to thoroughly understand structural and magical information on a level that was considered to be impossible. It sounded too good to be true. No wonder there was no record of a person using Elemental Sight in the last fifty years.

He sighed. Considering that, even the ability to locate others and sense their emotions with the Spirit Eye was something to be grateful for.

His mind returning to the task at hand, he realized that it was probably worse for the Course 2 students. He was just annoyed with this exercise. On the other hand, they would be devastated. No matter how talented they were at actually applying magic in real life situations, just because they couldn't push a stupid block up a rail, they would be considered worthless.

How stupid.

"Uzumaki-san?"

It was Mitsui Honoka, the girl who tried to flashbang everyone yesterday.

"Huh? Oh, hello, Mitsui-san. I didn't see you there."

"…" The girl didn't answer; she was too busy gaping at the number on the digital timer.

Naruto sighed and waved his hand in front of the girl's face. "Mitsui-san?"

"Uh oh! Sorry," Honoka said with a blush. "Your activation speed…it's…unreal…it's even faster than Miyuki's. She got 234 milliseconds."

Naruto tried to downplay his own accomplishments. "Ah…haha…there's some variation in the time with each try. I just had a good day and Shiba-san probably had a bad day. Or maybe she's just holding back today. She's our class representative, after all."

"That's true…"

It was a stroke of fortune that the full rankings of the entrance exams weren't public knowledge. Everyone probably assumed that Miyuki was number one in both the practical portion and the theory portion. Honoka didn't seem like a naturally suspiciously person so all he needed to do was just reset the timer and—

"Most impressive, Uzumaki-san," Miyuki said with a serene smile, as she joined them. Kitayama Shizuku, Honoka's best friend, was right behind her. "I had wondered many times about the identity of the person who scored higher than I did on the practical."

Naruto had been planning on saying that speed was only one component of the test, but he decided to shelve that plan after seeing the look in Miyuki's eyes. Her voice had been sweet and gentle, but the deadly gleam in her eyes all but dared him to refute her statement.

_Shiba Miyuki…you really aren't the sweet person you pretend to be, are you? _In fact, she seemed to be the opposite if the way she drew other people's attention to the timer was any indication. Naruto decided in that moment that he did not like Shiba Miyuki very much at all.

She had seen that he was discreetly trying to cover up his score and had acted directly to prevent him from doing so.

Naruto mentally cringed as Honoka gaped at the new revelation. Shizuku raised an eyebrow in his direction before looking at the still unreset timer. And the glares he was getting from his male classmates for "impressing" the prettiest girl in their school with his incredibly fast time weren't really helping his situation either.

"Thanks, Shiba-san," Naruto replied with what he hoped was a casual shrug. He couldn't reset the timer now with so many other people pointing at him and whispering about him now. "But I really don't think it's that big of a deal though."

Shizuku just gave him a deadpan look. "The average for all first-year Course 1 students is 512 milliseconds and the standard deviation is 74 milliseconds. You're about 3.89 standard deviations away from the mean among first-years. Expected frequency of a time of 224 milliseconds among _just _first-year Course 1 students would be about 1 in 10,000."

Naruto felt a drop of sweat roll down his neck. Yeah…that wasn't good for someone who was trying to stay under the radar. But then again, it wasn't like he could score significantly lower when his entrance exams scores were in the school records. He had been determined not to repeat his first mistake of overreacting and opted to go more towards being consistent.

Yet even that was a big pain in ass. Seriously…why were they giving him so much grief? Miyuki's time was just _ten milliseconds_ slower than his. It wasn't like she was from a special magic family or anything so her abnormally high skills should be just as attention-worthy.

Naruto gave them a small smile. "Well, a magician's power grows more or less linearly each year they practice magic for about ten years. Look at the third-years. I'm pretty sure their average time is a lot faster than ours. I started learning magic earlier than most so I am probably very close to my peak. Most of the people in the class will probably continue to develop and grow long after I plateau."

That was explanation was a load of bullshit packaged very well. Technically, a magician's power did only grow for about ten years. But that was only because a magician's power matured around the age of twenty-five, ten years after the start of formal magic training. There was no evidence that early magic training stunted the growth of a magician's power later on.

Judging from the look on Miyuki's face, she hadn't fallen for it at all.

"Still!" Honoka said brightly. "I think it's amazing and that it's something to be proud of. I don't think I'll ever have such fast activation speeds."

"Thanks, I'm glad that you think so highly of me, Mitsui-san. Anyway," Naruto said hurriedly, changing the topic, "did you want something of me?"

"Oh, it's just…" Honoka stammered. "We were done with the exercise, too. Since we had some time, we wanted to get to know you a bit more. You didn't join us after school yesterday so we never got to ask anything about you. We were curious as to what Satou-sensei said in class. Oh and Miyuki wanted to thank you for yesterday, too."

"Ah yes. I would like to extend my thanks to you for coming to our defense yesterday, Uzumaki-san. My brother and I would love to count you among our friends."

Naruto was tempted to roll his eyes as Miyuki tilted her head in "gratitude" but instead gave her a bright smile.

"It's nothing to be grateful for, Shiba-san. I simply acted as I felt." Naruto gestured at the timer where the damning numbers were still glowing. "Fast times, grades, scores…things like these are just meaningless numbers. How a person uses the talents that he or she has is far more telling of a person's worth than scores on one test."

The look in Miyuki's eyes completely changed at that and a red hue appeared on her face. There was no doubt in his mind as to what she was thinking about. _I guess that's the secret of dealing with the freshman rep, eh? Change the topic to anything that could be even remotely construed as a compliment about Tatusya…_ Naruto thought as a sweatdrop rolled down the back of his head.

Ignoring the now daydreaming Miyuki, Naruto went on to address the other part of Honoka's request. "As for my background…well…I was born in Japan, but my parents died soon after I was born. Luckily, my foster-father was in Japan at the time and took me in."

"Is he a USNA citizen?" Honoka asked.

Naruto nodded. "He is." There were more details on that, but Naruto wasn't going to share.

"Wow! That must be so cool," Honoka said with somewhat starry eyes. "I always wanted to see what the USNA is like. I really wish I could visit Hollywood!"

"Heh…it's just a country like any other…" Naruto said with a sheepish chuckle. "I've been to Los Angeles myself and I can tell you that it's not quite like what you see in the movies."

"Uzumaki-san? What does your foster father do for a living?"

Naruto glanced at Miyuki. The girl had broken out of her reverie and was now fishing for information now.

Not that it would do her any good. This was a question he was very prepared for. Naruto shrugged. "He's an author and freelance writer."

"Author?"

Naruto nodded, but gave Miyuki a knowing smile. She obviously wanted to know more. "He uses a pen name to hide his identity though so I'm not going to tell you too much along those lines."

That and Naruto wasn't going to tell his classmates that his godfather essentially wrote pornography.

"He must be famous then," Shizuku suddenly said. "Most public figures these days use false names to protect their privacy. My father does that, too."

"Shizuku's father is the executive chairman of a company," Honoka quickly explained.

Naruto recognized the corporation but didn't recognize her father's name, either the real name or false name. Even though the corporation was a huge financial giant, it was still a Japanese corporation and Naruto knew next to nothing about businesses in Japan. Still, Naruto made a convincing show of being shocked. He figured it'd be rude not to appear surprised.

"I suppose my foster father is successful and a bit well-known," Naruto admitted. Every single novel in the _Make-Out_ series was best-sellers. There was even talk about making movie adaptations. "Otherwise, he'd never have the money to travel around the world searching for even more inspiration for his stories."

_Yes…"inspiration." _Naruto almost snorted at that. The Pervy Sage usually visited areas where prostitution was rampant to get his rocks off, all the while claiming that it was part of his "research." Naruto lost how many times the Pervy Sage visited Nevada and what was once Central America.

"So do you get to follow him around?" Honoka asked excitedly. "Have you been to Paris? London?"

"Wow there," Naruto laughed. "Calm down, Mitsui-san. I had to go to school so I didn't get a chance to follow him around everywhere. But I do get to visit a few places every now and then. Unfortunately, it'll get even harder to do so now that I'm studying magic."

His three classmates all nodded. "My parents warned me about that," Shizuku agreed. "There are plenty of regulations in place to keep magic knowledge, magic technology, and magicians from getting into the hands of other countries."

"It's interesting that the USNA let you come back to Japan when you're so talented and more so if you started learning magic from an early age," Miyuki observed. "I can't say I know too much about USNA policies, but Japan would never allow any magic-capable person of your caliber to leave and become a citizen of another country."

Naruto mentally sighed. _And now I'm back to square one. _Luckily, he knew how to get out this trap. "That's probably why I'm back in Japan, don't you think?"

Miyuki blinked. "Why do you say that?"

"I wasn't born in the USNA. So I'm a Japanese citizen," Naruto said with a shrug. "Much of what I knew came from magic tutors that my foster father set me up with. I attended a public high school last year, but I was slated to learn magic at a private academy. That's when I found out exactly what you were talking about, Shiba-san. Japan found out about me and wasn't willing to let me become a resident of another country. The USNA has a significantly higher base population to draw magicians from so they probably didn't want to cause too much of a problem over a single magician. So I was given a choice: to give up using magic or to come back to Japan."

"Wow, to think there was so much politics involved," Honoka said breathlessly. "So you had to leave the only place you knew as home?"

"I suppose you can say that," Naruto said thoughtfully.

"Normally, there would be issues with culture, language…" Shizuku noted. "But you don't seem to have too much problem fitting in from what we've seen, Uzumaki-san."

"Aha…well…Satou-sensei would probably disagree with you on the culture part," Naruto said with a light laugh. "As for language, my foster father thought that it would help me to know the language of my birthplace so he made sure that I learned Japanese."

"That's very considerate of him. He sounds like a great person."

Naruto rolled his eyes when they weren't looking. _If only you knew._

* * *

><p>Lunch break quickly arrived and Tatsuya approached the Student Council room as one heading to the gallows. It was a start contrast to his sister, whose steps were light and energetic. While he wanted to sink back into the shadows, Miyuki seemed to do her utmost to bring him out into the spotlight. He knew she was doing that out of love for him so he couldn't even feel annoyed by it.<p>

Miyuki, being the one invited—Tatsuya was merely a "complementary" piece—announced their arrival through the speaker.

"Welcome. Don't mind us, please come in." Saegusa-sempai greeted them with a brilliant smile.

Tatsuya followed Miyuki's lead in bowing respectfully. "Thank you for inviting us, President."

"No need to be so formal." Tatsuya looked around the room to see the three other members present, one of whom was the Public Morals Committee chief. "Please sit. We can talk while we eat." The lighthearted tone from the president's voice was gone and replaced by a more serious one as she introduced the rest of the people in the room: Secretary Nakajou Azusa (A-chan), Treasurer Ichihara Suzune (Rin-chan), and of course, Watanabe Mari.

Other pleasantries were exchanged during the lunch, although there were a few incidences where Miyuki misunderstood some of the comments from the upperclassmen and leaked some of her power in a show of her displeasure.

"I'll get straight to the point. The Student Council uses the traditional method of concentrating the power and authority in the president."

"An extreme form of centralized power."

Saegusa-sempai nodded. "To that effect, the president is elected by the student body, and the other members are appointed by the president. With a few exceptions, the president has the right of appointment and removal for all officers."

"My position as the Chief of the Public Morals Committee is one of those exceptions. The Student Council, the Club Management Group, and the teachers each select a representative to determine this position."

"Because of this, on some level, Mari holds the same level of authority as I do. Under the rules, the president has a term period, but the others do not. The term lasts from October 1 to September 30 of the next year. Between this time, the president has the right of appointment and removal for all and any officers." Tatsuya nodded and Miyuki repeated the gestured. Tatsuya figured this in-depth explanation was for Miyuki's sake. "There is an annual tradition to invite the freshman representative to the Student Council, with the intent of training them to become the future president. Although there is no guarantee, this has been the case for the past five years."

"So the president was also a first-year representative? Quite impressive," Tatsuya complimented.

"Ah, umm…yes." Saegusa-sempai blushed in embarrassment. Tatsuya raised an eyebrow. It was strange that Saegusa Mayumi, a person who should be inured to flattery, would be embarrassed by his somewhat empty compliment. Her embarrassment definitely wasn't an act and made her appear like a normal high school girl…ah so that's what it was. _She intentionally lets people see that she is easily embarrassed and therein lies the act. _Tatsuya shook his head. It wasn't important anyway. The president was free to act in whatever manner she chose.

"So Miyuki-san, I hope you will decide to join us here in the Student Council."

Tatsuya nodded at Miyuki, silently encouraging her to accept so he could leave. It wasn't good for him to be near such public figures.

Miyuki lowered her head before quickly raising it. "President, are you aware of Onii-sama's entrance examination scores?"

Tatsuya was stunned, but kept silent, wondering just what Miyuki was up to.

The president smiled brightly at that. Tatsuya did not miss the look she shared with the other Student Council members. "Actually, I do know of it. It was truly incredible," here the president let out a sigh, "even _I _felt a bit insecure when I saw those scores."

Apparently bolstered by this, Miyuki went on. "If the Student Council generally accepts students with high test scores and outstanding abilities, I believe Onii-sama fits the criteria as well."

"Miyuki!" Tatsuya admonished.

His sister flat out ignored him. "And in terms of desk work, which has nothing to do with practical skills and grades and more to do with knowledge and judgment, I believe Onii-sama would be the best available candidate." Even Tatsuya thought Miyuki was being a bit too demanding here. He wondered just what had come over his little sister. "I'm honored and happy to accept even the lowest position, but please, you must let Onii-sama to join as well!"

Tatsuya mentally groaned. This was entirely his fault; he had spoiled her too much over the last few years. Miyuki should know that such blatant nepotism would have negative fallout.

"Unfortunately, that isn't possible." The person who responded was Ichihara Suzune. "Student council members must be selected from Course 1 students. This is not an unwritten rule, but an official one. This is the only clause that is attached to the right of appointment and removal for the president. To change this requires a special amendment meeting with the attendance of the full student body and carried by a two-thirds majority. Since the number of Course 1 and Course 2 students are practically equal, this is realistically impossible." Ichihara-sempai sounded apologetic. It was evident that she was against the widespread and blatant discrimination.

Miyuki's shoulders dropped before she finally stood up to bow. "My apologies. I said all of that without understanding the situation. Please forgive me."

"Apology accepted. Miyuki-san, in that case, at the very least, will you join the current Student Council as our junior secretary?"

Miyuki tilted her head. "Yes, I will work hard to fulfill my duties. Please look after me."

"Good, you can get the details from A-chan. She'll be the senior secretary so she'll be a great help to you."

"President," Nakajou-sempai whined. "Please stop calling me A-chan…"

Her protests were disregarded as Saegusa-sempai merely smiled and moved onto the next topic. "Miyuki-san, if there are no scheduling conflicts, can you please come today after school?"

"Yes." Miyuki turned to look at him. "Onii-sama…"

He nodded. "I'll wait for you."

"President! Why am I called 'A-chan' while Shiba-san is called Miyuki-_san_?"

This was a perfectly valid question, and one that Tatsuya was curious about as well, but it was ignored just like most of Nakajou-sempai's other protests.

"Mayumi, wait."

Everyone in the room turned to look at Watanabi-sempai. "We have one more thing to discuss."

"Hm?"

"The Public Morals Committee still has a couple of spots that haven't been filled. Well…now…_one _spot that hasn't been filled."

"Huh? But the Student Council hasn't officially sent in our recommendation for Naruto-kun just yet. Have the teachers already sent in their selection to the roster?"

Tatsuya took note of the fact that the president had all but admitted that she thought highly of Naruto.

"They have," the Public Morals Committee chief smirked. "You might like that answer, because it provides us with an interesting solution."

"Out with it," the president said impatiently.

"The teachers recommended Uzumaki based on the fact he placed first in the practical portion of the entrance exams. There was also the concern that because he was raised in the USNA for most his life, he might need a more structured committee like the Public Morals Committee or the Student Council to help him adjust to Japanese school life."

_So Naruto was the one who scored higher than Miyuki on the practical. Quite impressive._ Those were his genuine thoughts. Miyuki's caliber as a magician was in the top 0.1%…no…most likely top 0.01% in the world. For someone to be better than Miyuki…

He was also surprised that Naruto was raised in the USNA. _And yet he has a Japanese name and chose a Japanese high school._

He glanced at Miyuki. None of this seemed to surprise her, which meant that she had somehow figured this out beforehand. Tatsuya thought for a moment and realized that they had a practical course earlier in the day. Miyuki must have spent time that looking for the person who outperformed her on the entrance exam.

Tatsuya sighed. He had told Miyuki that it was of no big concern, but she had been adamant about improving and taking the number one spot for the practical portion. She had said that she would be shaming him if she allowed anyone but him to be above her.

"Eh? I didn't know that. It wasn't in his school profile. It's extremely rare for a person with the capacity to use magic cross country borders like that."

"That was my reaction when I first heard about it as well. Apparently, Uzumaki was born in Japan and is a Japanese citizen. His current guardian has business ties in the USNA and raised him there, but per national laws, Uzumaki has to come here for his formal magic education and has to be a resident of Japan after graduation. The teachers only found out about this a few days ago when his guardian called the principal."

"That would explain it…but wait…that means we're going to have to go through and review the other possible candidates!"

Watanabi-sempai's eyes glinted mischievously. "That leads me to the second point. While all the members of the Student Council aside from the president have to be Course 1 students, there's no such rules for the Public Morals Committee."

Tatsuya was not an idiot. He did not like where this conversation was heading. Tatsuya sighed when the president's eyes widened. Ichihara-sempai and Nakajou-sempai both had similarly shocked expressions on their face.

"NICE!" The president immediately stood up and gestured to Watanabe-sempai in a semi-formal way. "The Student Council nominates Shiba Tatsuya as a Public Morals Committee member. The paperwork will be sent to you later this afternoon."

Tatsuya made a feeble attempt to reverse this situation. "Shouldn't you take my thought on the matter into account? Moreover, I have no idea what my duties are!"

"It's not like we went into great detail about your sister's duties on the Student Council."

_That's true_. "But…"

"If that's the issue, it's easily resolvable. Tatsuya-kun," Watanabi-sempai said. _When did I become Tatsuya-kun to her?_ People were just calling him by his first name left and right. "Your job will be to uphold the public morals on campus."

That was a surprisingly succinct and completely useless explanation.

Watanabi-sempai must have caught onto his thoughts because she laughed. "Alright, well, the primary duties of the Public Morals Committee are to identify those that use magic against school rules and to subjugate those that use magic on campus to cause a disturbance. After the Public Morals Committee member decides the necessary punishment, he or she will present the case before a disciplinary committee consisting of the chief of the committee, the president, and activities chairman. In short, Public Morals Committee members are both the police and the prosecutors on campus."

"I'm a Course 2 student! My practical scores are terrible! How would I be able to subdue any rule-breakers?"

There was always Mist Dispersion, but it wasn't an option to use classified military-grade magic on a high school campus.

"If it's an issue of magic power, I'll personally handle it."

Tatsuya gave up trying to refuse. Between Miyuki, Saegusa-sempai, and Watanabe-sempai, his arguments were going to go nowhere. The three of them somehow conspired with the world to remove any chance he had for a quiet high school life. He briefly wondered if Naruto had felt the same way when he was approached with the job.

* * *

><p>Naturally, the vice-president had raised objection to a "Weed" being placed in the Public Morals Committee. The situation escalated and had ended in a formal match between Tatsuya and Hattori-sempai.<p>

Fortunately, the battle ended in about five seconds and Hattori-sempai had even offered an apology. It had been the only thing in the day that had gone better than expected. Well…the vice president had awkwardly ignored his presence altogether after that so maybe things weren't all that great.

After checking his CAD back into the workroom, Tatsuya returned to the Student Council room, where Watanabi-sempai immediately grabbed his wrist. He noticed Miyuki, who was being tutored by Azusa near the terminal on the wall, raise an eyebrow at this, and so he sent her an apologetic expression.

After all, this situation couldn't really be helped.

Tatsuya forcibly suppressed his subconscious urge to throw the Watanabi-sempai aside. She wasn't an enemy and openly showing hostility to neutral parties wasn't ideal. The analytical side of his mind took careful note, however, at how Watanabe-sempai captured him in such a narrow window. Watanabe-sempai was certainly more physically fit than she appeared.

"While a lot of unexpected things happened, it's finally done and over with, so let's go with the original plan and head to the Public Moral Committee HQ."

Sending his glaring sister a final apologetic look, he let himself be dragged out of the room.

After a few minutes of protesting, Tatsuya was finally able to free his wrist, and obediently followed the Public Morals Committee chief to the further room down the hall where they were be a fire escape. He decided not to comment on the irony of the Public Morals Committee disregarding important regulations like fire safety rules. After all, any qualified magician could put out a small fire so it wasn't too big of a problem.

"It's a bit messy but grab a place to sit down."

"Understood."

The chaotic room itself was a stark contrast to the tidy Student Council room. Books, portable terminals, and even CADs were littered all over the table. Tatsuya slightly cleared out a space for himself on one of chairs beside the table and sat down.

Watanabi-sempai no doubt had followed his gaze. "The Public Moral Committee Room is like a bachelor's pad. I told them to pick up after themselves time and time again, but no one ever listens."

"It can't be helped when no one is around to clean up." Tatsuya hoped that his comment would be some measure of comfort, but judging by the raised eyebrow from his senior, he may have miscalculated. Watanabi-sempai appeared to wondering whether he was mocking her.

"Anyway, as I said before, our primary objective is patrolling school grounds. It's natural that no one is here."

"Then is it okay if I tidied this place up a bit?"

"What?"

"As someone aiming to be a magic engineer, it's painful to see CADs and terminals scattered around like this."

"Magic engineer?" The surprise this time wasn't at his intent to clean up a mess that wasn't of his own doing. "With your level of anti-personnel combat capabilities? Perhaps you don't know this, but Hattori hasn't lost a single duel since he enrolled here. He's easily the most capable fighter among the second-years."

"No matter how hard I try, I would only be able to qualify for a C-rank license at best."

"That's…"

It was true. In most countries, magicians operated under the licensing system that was derived from international standards. The international standards were quite similar to the standards that First High School used—focusing on activation speed, interference strength, and the scale of magic. In contrast to other licenses were there was some leeway involved, combat magic licenses were strictly controlled. No amount of money or political power could influence the results. Tatsuya, being unable to freely wield standard Systematic Magic, would not be able to qualify for the higher compensated B and A rank levels. Even a C-rank license was being overly optimistic.

"So, is it okay if I clean up this area?"

"I'll help, too. We can talk while we work."

The chief had said that but Tatsuya realized really quickly that she was rather inept at organizing; she ended up making the process take longer by shoving everything to one huge pile. In fact, she was probably the one responsible for the huge mess in the first place.

Those thoughts went unspoken, of course.

Nonetheless, Watanabe-sempai gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry, I'm really bad at this type of thing." She raised an eyebrow. "Really though…you didn't have to sort all the books by subject. Stacking them would have been more than enough."

"Considering that books are a rarity these days, I figured that putting them on the shelf would be a better way to open up space for more frequently used items."

"If you say so," the chief replied with a casual wave. "Anyway, we went over this matter earlier with Hattori and Mayumi, but I scouted you because you're able to read Activation Sequences before they are even completed. Usually, we have to rely on the sensors at school after the magic is cast; there's no opportunity to prevent people from getting injured and it's difficult to determine who actually cast the spell first. Those responsible and those victimized are often both equally penalized. But with your ability, eventually, simply having you on this committee will become a deterrent for those would-be troublemakers. Of course, there are other reasons as well. It would be nice to improve the treatment and perception of Course 2 students."

"I remember, but I think that this tactic will backfire instead."

"Why do you say that?"

"Course 1 students aside, Course 2 upperclassmen won't appreciate being apprehended by someone of equal status."

"I suppose, but at the same time, first-year Course 2 students would welcome this change. Haven't you talked to your fellow students talked about this?"

"I have," Tatsuya admitted. And he had to acknowledge that he was surprised by the lack of jealousy. But it was still possible that Erika, Leo, Mizuki, and Shikamaru were merely outliers.

"Resentment is likely inevitable for a while. But in my opinion, the newly enrolled Course 1 students haven't been exposed to the discriminatory atmosphere long enough for them to be completely prejudiced against you."

"I'm not so sure about that." Tatsuya carefully began organizing the CADs in the room. "Just yesterday, I received the 'I don't acknowledge you' declaration from a first-year Course 1 student."

"You're being surprisingly delicate with the equipment." Watanabe-sempai noted before going back to the topic. "Was it Morisaki from Class 1A?"

"Oh?" It was true that Tatsuya had mentioned him yesterday, but he hadn't been expecting Watanabe-sempai to get a correct read on the boy's attitude from just that.

"The teachers were considering recommending him to this committee."

"Eh?" Tatsuya almost dropped the CAD in his hand. Watanabe-sempai didn't miss his hand shaking.

"So you _can _be surprised."

Tatsuya felt mildly offended by that. He lacked strong urges and emotions, but he wasn't some sort of robot. "Of course I can be surprised," he said with a sigh in response to her laughter. Just what did he do to receive this sort of casual and teasing treatment from both the chief and the president?

"Officially, we overlooked yesterday's commotion, but we _do _know what happened. After all, most of the school is under constant surveillance. And because of my own philosophy on the matter, the staff seems to have withdrawn their recommendation."

"And replaced him with Naruto."

The chief gave him a sly smile. "On first name basis already! This makes things quite easy, don't you think?"

She probably had already known that if the statement about the school surveillance system was to be believed. There was more than one occasion where he had spoken to the blonde from Class 1A. But then again, maybe only the outer fields were under surveillance.

"If I were to be honest, working with Naruto would allow for a more pleasant working environment for me here, but nonetheless, being the only Course 2 student out on patrol…"

* * *

><p>"This <em>is <em>the Public Moral Committee's room, right?"

Mayumi giggled as Mari raised an eyebrow. "That's quite the unexpected greeting, Mayumi."

"This place is clean for the first time in six months. After all, no matter how many times Rin-chan or A-chan begged you to clean this place, no one ever listened."

"How rude! It wasn't that no one listened, it's simply that we simply haven't started to clean!"

"Six months, Mari," Mayumi pointed out lightly before giggling again. "You know…as a woman, you should pay more attention to these kinds of things."

Mari's face flushed at that. "Ah…well…that…it's not that I don't want to pay attention…"

Mayumi gestured to Tatsuya who was examining an old terminal. "It looks like he's been put to good use already."

"I guess so."

"Chief, I've inspected all the equipment in the room. There are a few broken ones, but they're all easily repaired. I can get them done for you in a week."

"Good work."

"So you address Mari as Chief, eh? Does that mean we have successfully recruited you?"

"Did I even have the right to refuse?"

Mayumi placed her hands on her hips and glared at him in a teasing manner. "Tatsuya-kun, don't you think you're being too rude to your older sister here?"

Mayumi mentally smirked when he merely raised an eyebrow a fraction of a _millimeter_, but didn't respond. The natural response was obviously that she wasn't his older sister, but he appeared to be cowed into remaining silent. She wasn't keeping score, but she was definitely in the lead by a large, large margin.

After a long pause where he studied her carefully, he addressed her. "President, just in case, I want to clarify one thing with you."

"Hm…?"

"We met for the first time just before the entrance ceremony, right?"

Mayumi would have cackled if it wouldn't have made her appear like a mentally ill patient. In the corner of her eye, she could see Mari cradling her head in both annoyance at Mayumi and amusement at the overall situation.

"Is this how it is?" Mayumi began in a low voice. "Ho ho ho ho ho."

"Tatsuya-kun, you think we've met before, right? So the day of the enrollment ceremony must be our fateful reunion~!"

"No, wait, President!"

Mayumi pretended not to have heard anything. She clasped her hands and looked up at the sky. It was the ceiling, but figuratively speaking, it might as well be the sky.

"A long time ago we met, then were thrust apart by cruel fate, only to be united by sweet destiny once more!" She stepped up to him and looked up with a teary gaze. "Tatsuya-kun, this meeting of ours…"

"…was undoubtedly our first meeting," Tatsuya replied in a deadpan voice.

Mayumi let her shoulders slump in a show of depression. "Actually…yes…unfortunately…"

"Although if it had been fate bringing us together, it wouldn't be sweet destiny, but rather some sort of doom…"

Mayumi's eyes widened before she mentally grinned. _So you can play along, Tatsuya-kun. This will be so much fun._

She forced tears into her eyes before turning around. "Is that so…Tatsuya-kun?" He wasn't fooled at all. "Tch." Mayumi decided to give that round to him.

"Um, President?"

She turned around, her most charming smile back on her face. "Yes, Tatsuya-kun, what is it?"

"I think I have a better idea of who you are now…"

She puffed her face in what she thought was a cute manner. "Eh? Tatsuya, don't you think you're being a bit mean?"

"You can't use the same tricks you use on Hattori, Mayumi. Your charm doesn't work on him. And switching between moods won't throw him off either."

"Don't paint me in such an evil light, Mari," Mayumi said with a touch of embarrassment at the implication. "You make it seem like I casually fool around with underclassmen."

Mari didn't acknowledge her response and addressed Tatsuya. "Mayumi acts differently around you because she acknowledges you, Tatsuya-kun. She only takes off her mask in front of the people she acknowledges." Mari paused. "She probably considers the two of you to be quite alike in some areas."

That was true, but something like that wasn't supposed to be said by a third party. "Tatsuya-kun, don't listen to what Mari says about me." Mayumi began walking back out before turning to give him a smile. "But I suppose…I do acknowledge you." She let her smile grow a bit more and forced a blush on her face. "Maybe…maybe the one touched by fate is me~"

And with that, she left.

* * *

><p>Shikamaru was sitting on one of Naruto's couches in his living room, along with Ino and Chouji. This whole situation was so damn troublesome, but it had to be done. For all their sakes.<p>

"Alright, since introductions obviously didn't go as planned…I'm Uzumaki Naruto, Class 1A at First High School, wanted shinobi, kickass magician, and all that jazz."

The introduction was said in an energetic and bright tone, but there was nothing in that introduction that the three of them didn't already know. Despite his attitude, Naruto clearly didn't trust them very much. But then again, Naruto _had _invited them over to his house—despite not having even talked with Ino and Chouji yet—so it was clear that he was putting himself out there first.

"I have no clue how, but it's pretty clear that you recognize us from seven years ago. And as you already suspected, our names have changed," Shikamaru began. "You already know mine, so I'm not going to repeat it."

"Yamanaka Ino," Ino introduced herself curtly. After a slight pause, she decided to add on some more information. "Class 1B."

Chouji's greeting was more upbeat. "Akimichi Chouji. Class 1C. I specialize in Body Enhancement Magic. Pleased to meet you."

After seeing Chouji and Ino both nod at him, Shikamaru took the initiative as their spokesman. He was the only one who had any sort of relationship with Naruto at this point so it fell on him to make this go as smoothly as possible.

"Ino, Chouji, and I have been on the run from Konoha, just like you have, for five years. Because our families were openly allied with the Sarutobi Family, after Hiruzen-sama was assassinated, we were hunted down by those loyal to Danzo."

Naruto's eye twitched, almost as if he didn't know how to feel, but he didn't show any other sign of emotion.

After a pause, Naruto went on. "So you guys are back in Japan and hiding from Konoha."

"That's right."

"Japan's not really a good place if you want to hide from Konoha," Naruto said in a dry voice.

Naruto was right. Even though they had changed their legal names and even with the influence of the Ten Master Clans keeping Konoha somewhat at bay, Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji were essentially sitting ducks in Konoha's neighborhood.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious," Ino replied in a slightly sarcastically voice. "It only took an assassin every other month for us to figure that out."

Naruto chuckled mirthlessly at Ino's sharp response. "Yamanaka, was it? That's some attitude you got there. I think we're going to get along just fine."

"We had no other choice," Shikamaru said, cutting in before Ino could snap back. He needed to keep this conversation as civil as possible. "We could return to Japan because of our original passports. But escaping to any country strong enough to shield us from Konoha wasn't and still isn't an option. Nearly all of the powerful countries are highly closed off in the modern era. Even visitor visas are hard to obtain. We know Jiraiya-sama had apparently worked out some kind of deal with the USNA for you, but not all of us have those kinds of connections."

"Not to mention the difficulty we'll have even if we _do _escape to another country," Chouji added. "Konoha only teaches Japanese and Mandarin Chinese so the language problem is an immediate problem."

That wasn't quite true. Some people learned Korean and still others learned Cantonese. There were a few who learned other languages such as English, Portuguese, or Hindi but those were operatives who were being trained to work undercover in countries beyond Konoha's normal sphere of influence. Shikamaru himself had been instructed in basic conversational English. But for the most part, what Chouji said applied.

Naruto nodded. "I understand. I wasn't blaming you or saying that you should have found another country to hide in. As Yamanaka so _kindly _pointed out, I really was just stating the obvious. Anyway, are there any others who escaped?"

"There aren't too many of us," Chouji answered. "Maybe several hundred at the most. My dad survived and Ino's mom survived."

Unsaid was that Chouji's mother, Ino's father, and both of Shikamaru's parents were killed in the escape. Shikamaru currently lived with Chouji.

Shikamaru saw Naruto turn to look at him and Ino. "I'm sorry for your loss. I'm sure they were good parents."

Even if Ino was fooled, Shikamaru was not. The words had come far too easily from someone who had every reason to hate Konoha and anyone associated with Konoha. Unlike his two best friends, Shikamaru had some insider information about just why Naruto was the most wanted person in Konoha.

Still, Shikamaru recognized Naruto's effort to console him for what it was and nodded. "Thank you."

There was a long and awkward pause.

Naruto's voice broke through the silence. "So what's all of this fuss about?"

Shikamaru looked at Naruto in confusion. "Fuss?"

"Yeah. Ero-sennin—ah that's right…you call him "Jiraiya-sama"—went through a great deal of trouble trying to get me to trust you. Why?"

"I'm not sure how much Jiraiya-sama has told you…" Chouji said slowly.

"He's told me absolutely nothing," Naruto said in an irritable tone. "It's usually that way, so you're going to have to tell me everything."

Shikamaru shrugged when the others looked at him. "Well, there's not much to tell. We're just a loose coalition of people who escaped from Konoha. We're just forming a pact to help one another out in case Konoha comes after us in earnest."

"Jiraiya-sama told us that you know Shiho," Ino added. "Well Shiho's family is part of that group. Shiho's father is the one who translated all our families' ancient magic spells into modern magic Activation Sequences and her mother is the one who provides us with intel on possible movement from Konoha."

"Doesn't Konoha use its own internal network?" Naruto asked. "Even I remember that it's supposed to be impossible to hack into Konoha's servers. You can't hack what isn't connected."

Shikamaru nodded. "That's true. But even as closed off Konoha tries to be, it has to interact with the rest of the world. Shiho's mother regularly checks to see if legal names are being changed or if birth certificates are magically being added to Japan's database—those are usually signs that a Konoha shinobi has usually entered the country."

He didn't add that what Shiho's mother did wasn't perfect. There were plenty of ways to smuggle a person into Japan illegally. While Japan was completely surrounded by water, the distance between Japan and the nearest GAA island wasn't all that great; it was entirely possible that someone could swim the short distance separating the two countries.

"Not bad," Naruto said with a furrowed brow. "But why do you need _me_? You guys seem to have done well so far. Furthermore, I don't really have any specialized skillset that could help you hide from Konoha. I'm just a fighter."

Shikamaru exchanged looks with his two friends and ignored the cross look on Ino's face.

"That's precisely what we need now." He took a deep breath. "For five years, we've just been on the defensive and have let the enemy attack us whenever they felt like it. We think it's time to strike back."

"Speak for yourself," Ino snorted. "I never approved of this crazy idea of yours. I agreed to going to a magic high school to develop a fusion between my family ancient magic and modern magic, but that's it. Starting up a miniature war against Konoha isn't in my to-do list."

Chouji cut in. "Ino, Shikamaru's right. We can't just keep hiding for the rest of our lives."

"But why do _we _have to do something about it?" Ino argued back. "There are plenty of adults who escaped from Konoha as well. They should be taking the lead on this, not us!"

"You know as well as I do that they never will."

"We could at least wait a few years! We're just kids!"

Shikamaru had heard every point and argument on both sides before. But the fact of the matter was…the adults were just too afraid. Because they were so set in their ways, they rarely looked to new possibilities. It was ingrained in them that Konoha was far too big and far too strong. They were right for the most part. In terms of pure battle strength, Konoha had the might of a small country. In terms of resources, Konoha was even _stronger_, having subverted many large companies and even government administrations. It seemed next to impossible to oppose Konoha.

And yet…the Ten Master Clans and their eighteen auxiliary families, along with the Hundred Families, had done exactly that. They had forced Konoha to retreat. They had proven that Konoha wasn't quite as strong as thought.

Waiting was a tempting option, but it also gave Danzo that much more time to consolidate his power.

Shikamaru sighed and ignored the bickering between Chouji and Ino. He addressed Naruto. "As you've already noticed, most of the adults have washed their hands on this issue. They don't want anything to do with this."

"Why bother increasing the risk?" Naruto asked rhetorically before showing a wry smile and answering his own question. "Of course, there's the inconvenient fact that Danzo was probably busy rebuilding his forces after his rebellion. Sooner or later, he's going to turn his full attention to all of us."

"That's why I'm secretly going around meeting the people in our generation." Shikamaru frowned. "But we have some issues. Not only are there a few of us, but also very few of us have the firepower necessary to do some serious damage."

"And that's where I come in, I guess?" Naruto groaned.

"Yes." Shikamaru didn't even bother denying it. He had been interested in Naruto the moment he had heard that Jiraiya-sama had taken on an apprentice.

"Does Ero-sennin know about this?"

Shikamaru shook his head. "No, he just believes that we want you as support in case we run into a large group of assassins or something." He paused. "Jiraiya-sama seemed more interested in getting us to be friends than anything else."

"Yeah," Naruto said in an irritated voice. "He gave me a lecture on it last night." Before Shikamaru could say anything, Naruto went on. "So let's see. You want me to fight against one of the most powerful magic organizations in the world. Not just that, you want me to be a front-line soldier in that fight with very little direct support and put my life at even greater risk. All of this for a bunch of people I don't know or care about. And there's no reward involved whatsoever. That sounds exactly like something I'd be interested in signing up for," Naruto finished sarcastically. Shikamaru winced. It sounded pretty bad when Naruto put it that way. Naruto laughed harshly and drew the attention of both Ino and Chouji who had now stopped arguing. "What if I say no? No offense, but my circumstances are entirely different from yours. I hate Sarutobi Hiruzen almost as much as I hate Shimura Danzo. _Sarutobi_ was the one who ordered my death, which ended up leading to my exile. So you'll have to forgive me if I find the idea of fighting alongside people who revere that old monkey puts a bad taste in my mouth."

There were several things that Shikamaru _could _have responded with to convince Naruto. For one, Shikamaru could appeal to Naruto's sense of guilt. Shikamaru knew that Naruto was close with Shiho—as close as one could be while spending five to six years apart—and he could "carelessly" reveal that Shiho had volunteered to fight despite not being a combat magician by trade. For another, Shikamaru could appeal to Naruto's desire for revenge by pointing out that there was growing body of evidence that Danzo had been the one who had ordered the assassination of Minato-sama as well.

But Shikamaru drew the line at manipulating people for self-gain. He wasn't Danzo.

Shikamaru let out a long and disappointed sigh. It was looking like this meeting was going to end in failure. It wasn't completely unexpected, but it was still disappointed. "If you want to say no, then that's your choice. I'm not in the business of forcing people to do something against their will. We can pretend like we never met before or we can simply act as casual classmates."

There was a long silence.

"I'm in," Naruto finally said. "I suppose I am tired of just sitting around and letting Danzo take potshots at me. And even though I don't trust you…Ero-sennin believes that you're someone worth trusting. Despite his insufferable attitude, he's someone I know I can count on. But…" Shikamaru held his breath. "I'm in all the way. That means no leaving out any crucial information and taking my opinions into account. I don't particularly care about leading or anything like that but _I _get to decide what assignments _I_ get involved in."

"Hey! Aren't you being—"

Shikamaru raised his hand to silence Ino. Shikamaru then stood up, walked over to where Naruto was sitting, and held out his hand to Naruto. "Down with Danzo?" Shikamaru proposed.

The smirk on Naruto's face looked positively evil. "Down with Danzo."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Once again, there were a few redundant scenes from the light novel—hope the Tatsuya x Mayumi fans are happy—and I added a few filler scenes myself to show that the characters _are _interacting. It's why this chapter and the last two have been so long. Ironically, it's also why chapter updates have been once a week…since I have a larger base of text to work with. But I did my best to cut out any unnecessary scenes (the Tatsuya vs Hattori battle and the huge info dump that comes after it was cut because that one scene alone added something like 10,000 words).

Anyway, I did slip in a few key points about Naruto's background and plot points to show where the story is heading. Hopefully, the introductory arc will all be done and over with by chapter 6 or 7 at the latest and we can get into the meat of the story.

I wanted to address something that someone PM'ed me about. I merged the _Naruto _universe and the _Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei_ universe the best I could instead of having a post-war Naruto with chakra as the main character to preserve what I consider is the best part of the _Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei__ u_niverse: the scientific explanations for magic. Unfortunately, chakra doesn't follow the laws of physics and had to be cut out. I get that some people want to see an overpowered Naruto wiping the floor with everyone with powers unknown to magic researchers/scientists, but that essentially destroys what makes the _Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei_ universe so damn amazing.

Onto other stuff…

Wow, I intended people to raise an eyebrow or two but I didn't expect my portrayal of Jiraiya would cause such strong responses. For a few days, I actually considered going back and editing the entire scene out. Haha. But in the end, I decided to keep it. I simply portrayed him as I saw him in the manga: always absent, highly secretive, far too demanding of Naruto, and very much hypocritical at times. I think it comes from Jiraiya desperately wanting Naruto to not end up like him (remember, Jiraiya considers himself a failure). I think Jiraiya is well-meaning, but absolutely horrible in how he expresses it. And in the last chapter, Jiraiya _knew _his comment was hitting below the belt, but he felt that guilt-tripping Naruto into acting more like a normal human being was well worth the cost. An "ends justifies the means" kind of attitude…

I guess I'll have to be much more careful in how I portray Jiraiya in the future so as to not make everyone hate him. He's supposed to make people have mixed feelings, not outright hate.


End file.
